Hamas and Russian Ruble

Russian ruble: The market responded immediately, with dramatic declines in the Russian ruble and the Moscow stock market. In addition, the sanctions only exacerbated an already difficult situation for Russian companies. Syndicated loans for Russian commodities producers are down more than 80 percent over the past six months. The appetite for Russian bonds has also decreased considerably in the aftermath of the Ukraine crisis. So the current round of sanctions made a bad situation worse, according to CNN. Arab leaders, usually prodigal in their outpourings of ritual solidarity with the Palestinians, have been curiously silent, writes David Gardner in the Financial Times . Partly that is because Saudi Arabia, Egypt and their allies are so hostile to the Muslim Brotherhood, of which Hamas is the Palestinian chapter. It is also because the ferocious Syrian war, and lightning surge of Sunni jihadis from Syria into Iraq, eclipses what for many looks like a new episode in a wearisomely familiar feud. Paradoxically, Israel wants to weaken but not overthrow Hamas the cynical military expression is mowing the lawn. For beyond Hamas lies the unbridled savagery of movements such as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant Isis , which already has followers in Gaza and the Palestinian refugee camps up and down the eastern Mediterranean that serve as universities of jihad and But even by hinting as to what sectoral sanctions might look like, Obama has upset Russias economic calculations. Obama is often criticized for not backing up the red lines that he draws. But in Ukraine, Obama essentially has drawn a gray line demanding Russia take certain actions to end the crisis, writes William E. Pomeranz for Reuters. No one knows when this gray line is crossed, however. So these new sanctions only heighten the uncertainty and risk of doing business in Russia. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.