A full-blown currency crisis. That’s one way to describe the situation in Russia, where even the attempted "shock and awe" of a 6.5 percentage point-hike in interest rates failed to halt the rouble's slide on the foreign exchanges. The other is to say that Russia has been engaged in an economic war with the west - and has just lost.
Russia's War Against Ukraine
Larry Elliott: Russia has just lost the economic war with the West
A woman walks past a board listing foreign currency rates against the ruble outside an exchange office in central Moscow on Dec. 12, 2014.
