TODAY: Ruble falls, again; gold reserves used to buoy currency; Central Bank anticipating major capital flight. Russian military busy in Baltic; Stalin’s victims remembered; Google to downsize Russian office; Constitution Day. 

The ruble has fallen to 57.49 against the dollar and 71.23 against the euro, representing yet anther low and prompting reverberations in Russia’s stock exchanges.  Gold reserves have reportedly dropped by $4.3 billion in one week – no prizes for guessing what they are being used for.  Russia’s Finance Ministry may funnel some money from its National Welfare Fund into banks’ deposits in January, to assist firms suffering due to sanctions.  The Central Bank has raised its capital flight forecast for next year from $99 billion to $120 billion to take into account a worst case scenario: the sum is more than double Russia’s current account surplus.  In a revealing interview with Bloomberg, Mikhail Khodorkovsky has said than even the slightest drop in oil prices is a problem for Putin, ‘because, with his system of rule, he can’t survive without the revenue from raw materials growing every year.’