By Unic Staff.
MOSCOW, Russian Federation. Russia’s foreign currency ratings have been downgraded by Standard & Poor’s Financial Services.
In its publication on January 26, 2015, Standard & Poor’s said:
“The Russian Federation’s monetary policy flexibility has weakened, as have its economic growth prospects. We are therefore lowering our foreign currency sovereign credit ratings on Russia to ‘BB+/B’ from ‘BBB-/A-3’ and our local currency sovereign credit ratings to ‘BBB-/A-3’ from ‘BBB/A-2’. The outlook is negative, reflecting our view that Russia’s monetary policy flexibility could diminish further.”
European Union (EU) maintains that, Russia illegally annexed Crimean Peninsula, part of Ukraine that is situated on the northern coast of the Black Sea. Hence Russia is deliberately destabilising a sovereign state.
In response to the ‘annexation’ of Crimea, the EU imposed a range of diplomatic and economic sanctions against Russia causing inflation and plunging value of the rouble.
Diplomatic sanctions: Asset freezes and visa bans on over 100 individuals and many entities who, the EU believes, have been acting in concert with Russia to undermine Ukraine’s territorial integrity.
Economic sanctions: There a range of economic sanctions on Russia, such as, EU nationals and companies were ‘partially’ restricted from buying or selling news bonds, equity or related financial instruments with a maturity exceeding 30 days if they are being issued by any of the five major banks owned by Russia or their subsidiaries outside the EU, Russia’s leading energy companies, and Russia’s defence companies. There are restrictions on EU companies and nationals on providing loans to any of the five major banks owned by Russia. An embargo on importing and exporting of arms and related material to and from Russia, especially all items on the EU common military list is in place.
