Fitch ratings agency also warns that the rising inflation, higher interest rates and capital flight out of Russia is increasing risks of a major slowdown, reports Mark Thompson for CNN Money.
“Capital flight could accelerate, particularly if the threat of economic and financial sanctions increased,” Fitch said. “While not our base case, were such sanctions to materialize, the potential impact on growth and investment could lead us to review our sovereign rating on Russia.”
Meanwhile, the increased geopolitical volatility has been a boon for the Direxion Daily Russia Bear 3x Shares (NYSEArca: RUSS), which takes an inverse three times leveraged, or -300%, daily return of Russian equities. Over the past week, RUSS has surged 16.7%. The ETF is up 69.1% year-to-date. [Putin Pushes Traders to Risky Russia ETFs]
Market Vectors Russia ETF
For more information on Russia, visit our Russia category.
Max Chen contributed to this article.