“Greetings Gentlemen; In thinking about the Ukraine/Crimea situation I cannot help but wonder if the war of words will devolve into a war of economic/political sanctions (some of which seem to be imminent) and from there into a currency war, i.e. the ruble vs the usd. Is it unrealistic to think that Russia might try to strengthen its currency at the expense of the dollar? I'd be interested if you have any thoughts about this possibility.”

David Fuller's view

Thanks for an interesting email.  Much of this is discussed in my lead article above.  

Putin might like to see the RUB strengthen against the USD but it is weakening as you can see from this chart of RUB per 1 USD.  Therefore, I do believe that it is unrealistic to think that Russia is able to strengthen its currency while the current dispute persists.