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The pressure is building on Vladimir Putin: Russia will be hit by a wave of bankruptcies unless it cuts interest rates very soon, a top financial official warned Monday.
Anatoly Aksakov, president of Russia's regional banking association and deputy chairman of parliament's financial markets committee, said firms were running out of cash.
"Bankers believe that keeping the situation as it stands will cause a wave of bankruptcies, not only credit institutions but also a number of businesses and companies," Aksakov wrote in a letter to the central bank, according to Russian state media.
The ruble was under pressure again Monday, falling 1.3% against the U.S. dollar as oil prices continued to slide. Russia is heavily dependent on oil revenues. The currency shed about 40% of its value in 2014.
The government has attempted to shore up the banking sector with a series of handouts, spending billions to prop up lenders including VTB, Gazprombank and the failed Trust Bank.
BNP Paribas said Monday that Russia's banks may need an overwhelming amount of support this year.
"Banks may need up to ... $45 billion in capital in 2015 to support lending and absorb credit losses, and another ... $11.5 billion to address foreign exchange valuation losses," wrote credit specialist Tatiana Tchembarova.
At the same time, the central bank has been running down its stash of foreign cash to try to stabilize its currency and contain the economic crisis.
It burned through more than $120 billion in foreign currency supplies last year. It now has $388.5 billion left in total international reserves, including gold and other liquid foreign assets.
With the price of oil tanking and the ruble getting pummeled, high-end real estate brokers in Manhattan, Miami and other major cities have been losing some of their best customers.
Deep-pocketed Russian buyers have been disappearing since last spring when international sanctions were imposed on Russia.
Over the past few years, Russian buyers have been responsible for some of the flashiest purchases in New York, according to Gabby Warshawer, research director for CityRealty, a website specializing in New York City sales.
Among them: the record breaking $88 million purchase of a Central Park West condo by Ekaterina Rybolovlev, the daughter of billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev; composer, Igor Krutoy's $48 million purchase of a duplex in the Plaza Hotel and the $38 million purchase of an apartment in Time Warner Center by businessman, Andrei Vavilov.
"This year, we haven't seen any of those chart-topping sales," said Warshawer.
Russian buyers were driving the ultra-high-end market in Florida as well, according to Danny Hertzberg, a Coldwell Banker agent with The Jills Group in Miami Beach.
The most expensive sale in Miami's history was a home that sold for $47 million in 2012 to an unidentified Russian buyer. But even that paled in comparison to the $95 million sale of Donald Trump's Palm Beach palace in 2010 to Dmitry Rybolovlev, the father of Ekaterina, the woman who bought that $88 million condo on Central Park West. Donald Trump's Maison de l'Amitie in Palm Beach, Fla. sold to Dmitry Rybolovlev in a record-breaking deal. Last spring, however, all of those deep-pocketed Russians seemed to disappear, said Hertzberg.
"It felt like it changed almost overnight," he said.
The big drop off occurred right after the Russian government tightened its currency restrictions, making it difficult for Russian nationals to move large sums of money out of the country. It's now even getting to be a challenge for some to transfer the small amounts of cash they need to pay real estate taxes and maintenance costs, Hertzberg said.
It's difficult to know just how much of an impact the pullout of Russian buyers will have on markets like New York, said Warshawer. Not only do fair housing laws make it almost impossible to accurately track a buyer's nationality, but the buyer's identity may also be concealed since manyof the most expensive properties get bought and sold through middle men and limited liability companies.
However, New York appraiser Jonathan Miller, of Miller Samuel, isn't too concerned.
"I kept hearing about Russians dominating New York's high-end market but they never really did," he said. "They just had the highest profiles."
But Hertzberg notes, the Russian buyers play another role, too. Like many other foreign clients, they were much more bullish on the U.S. real estate market during the housing bust than Americans were.
"Russians were willing to go well beyond what others would pay for trophy properties," said Hertzberg.
He thinks the rich Russian buyers will come back quickly if they can find a way to extract their wealth from the mother country.
"I hear from some Russianclients that the decline of the ruble has made them even more eager to buy here," he said.
Amazing how the socialized wealth of the Soviet Union was carved into a few big pieces and given to the lucky few who became multi-billionaires overnight all by coddling a few thieves like the stupefyingly foolish Gorbachev and the addled-brained drunkard Yeltsin
And now they are crying for help from "the people" because their mismanagement is threatening them with bankruptcy.
Gotta love the stupidity of it all.
When will Russians get the good common sense to start hauling these crooks into cellars and start shooting them and confiscating their wealth BACK?
They got rid of the Royal family once but, like all slime, they oozed their way back in. Only the names were changed to protect the guilty.
Last edited by Kefir King; 01-20-2015 at 06:49 AM..
Amazing how the socialized wealth of the Soviet Union was carved into a few big pieces and given to the lucky few who became multi-billionaires overnight.
And now they are crying for help from "the people" because their mismanagement is threatening them with bankruptcy.
Gotta love the stupidity of it all.
When will Russians get the good common sense to start hauling these crooks into cellars and start shooting them and confiscating their wealth BACK?
China underwent the same first process as its big communist brother the Soviet did. The party powers got extremely "lucky" in terms of wealth redistribution, which contributed in a great part to global purvhase of lux items and housing by the chinese especially in big east/west coast cities.
the difference is that there is an internal political turmoil going on in china which targets the power corrupts in the rival camp, hence you hear often how many billionaire former party leaders are losing both their corrupted wealth and their political life and individual freedom under the name of law and order, but in truth, it is a consequnce of new redistritution of power and wealth. no matter what the true cause is, the average Lius in china are content enough to watch what is going on even though they are the ultimate victims of the system no matter who wins the political game. So the same can be said that it would not make difference to the average vladmire whether the russian riches get haulted or not.
Amazing how the socialized wealth of the Soviet Union was carved into a few big pieces and given to the lucky few who became multi-billionaires overnight all by coddling a few thieves like the stupefyingly foolish Gorbachev and the addled-brained drunkard Yeltsin
And now they are crying for help from "the people" because their mismanagement is threatening them with bankruptcy.
Gotta love the stupidity of it all.
When will Russians get the good common sense to start hauling these crooks into cellars and start shooting them and confiscating their wealth BACK?
They got rid of the Royal family once but, like all slime, they oozed their way back in. Only the names were changed to protect the guilty.
You need to look at that again - Gorbachev's pace and considered decision making was fine, he was doing it very well. The Russian population, who have never voted in a good man in a free election, pushed him out for Yeltsin who everyone could see was just a mess. If Gorbachev had stayed in power for another 5 years or so things would have been very different. Yeltsin turned it into a mass wealth grab.
China underwent the same first process as its big communist brother the Soviet did. The party powers got extremely "lucky" in terms of wealth redistribution, which contributed in a great part to global purvhase of lux items and housing by the chinese especially in big east/west coast cities.
the difference is that there is an internal political turmoil going on in china which targets the power corrupts in the rival camp, hence you hear often how many billionaire former party leaders are losing both their corrupted wealth and their political life and individual freedom under the name of law and order, but in truth, it is a consequnce of new redistritution of power and wealth. no matter what the true cause is, the average Lius in china are content enough to watch what is going on even though they are the ultimate victims of the system no matter who wins the political game. So the same can be said that it would not make difference to the average vladmire whether the russian riches get haulted or not.
This is a really bad misrepresentation of china. You must get all your information from western media.
How are the russians going to survive this winter with their economy being so screwed?
In another blow to Russia's economy, Standard & Poor's downgraded the country's credit rating to junk status.
The rating cut will make it harder and more expensive for Russia to borrow money. Many investors are required to hold only investment grade bonds and will now be forced to sell Russian paper.
Russia's economy has been pushed to the brink of recession by oil's dramatic slide. Sanctions imposed by Western nations over Russia's actions in Ukraine have also put heavy pressure on the economy.
Half of the government's revenue comes from oil and gas exports.
In December, S&P warned that Russia had few options left to revive its ailing economy and signaled that the agency had place the country on review for a potential downgrade.
The situation has only deteriorated as oil prices continue to fall. Crude oil current trades around $45 a barrel, compared to over $100 as recently as July. Russia's government budget assumed that oil would trade above $100 this year.
The nation's currency has plunged to all-time lows, raising concerns that it is headed for a full-blown financial crisis. It's lost over 40% of its value against the U.S. dollar. Russians have been rushing to withdraw rubles and convert them into dollars, worried about the devaluation and the soaring price of imported goods.
That has exacerbated the rubles depreciation, according to S&P, which expects inflation to rise above 10% in Russia this year.
The Russian central bank has hiked interest rates five times this year in an attempt to prop up the ruble. Related: Russian elites say sanctions will never move Putin
The rates Russian banks lend to each other have more than doubled since December -- overnight lending rates now stand at 25% -- indicating just how serious the funding crisis has become.
Russia's central bank said last month it would provide an emergency loan of 30 billion rubles ($545 million) to keep a struggling bank afloat and protect customers' deposits while it engineers a longer term bailout involving a bigger Russian bank.
But S&P warned that the central bank will face "increasingly difficult monetary policy decisions" as inflation becomes more of a problem.
Well, the most famous Russian billionaire aka Roman Abramovich doesn't seem to care.
He has spent $60mm buying up multiple townhouses on the Upper East Side and wants to tear them down and build a mega-mansion.
[url=http://therealdeal.com/blog/2015/01/26/abramovich-asks-landmarks-commission-to-build-mansion/]Roman Abramovich House | Abramovich Mansion NYC[/url]
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Donald Trump's Maison de l'Amitie in Palm Beach, Fla. sold to Dmitry Rybolovlev in a record-breaking deal. Last spring, however, all of those deep-pocketed Russians seemed to disappear, said Hertzberg. 
