To try to stanch the bleeding, on Monday evening (the middle of the night Moscow time), the Central Bank of Russia announced a stunning interest rate increase. Its main deposit rate is now 17 percent, up from 10.5 percent when Russian banks closed for business Monday.It may go without saying, but a 6.5 percentage point emergency interest rate increase announced in the middle of the night is not a sign of strength. Rather, it is the kind of thing you see only in an old-school emerging markets currency crisis. And that is very much what Mr. Putin’s Russia is now experiencing.

via Vladimir Putin vs. the Currency Markets: What to Know About the Ruble’s Collapse – NYTimes.com.