Amazingly, doctors of Charité, the German university hospital, in tandem with one famous Russian blogger have been able to solve the knotty problem that could not be settled by the Bank of Russia and the finance ministry. Actually, they strengthened the Russian ruble.
On September 7, the clinic announced that Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny was removed from a medically induced coma. The welcome news instantly revived the ailing Russian currency which had been in the coma-like state for the last half a year. Analysts reckon that the announcement about improvement in Navalny’s condition was the only weighty reason for the ruble’s reinforcement. It advanced to 75 against the US dollar and to the level below 88 against the euro. So, the ruble gave a positive response to the news that Alexey Navalny is "responding to verbal stimuli” and can do without mechanical lung ventilation.
Alexey Navalny has survived poisoning with a Novichok nerve agent. It means that the West will impose at least not the toughest sanctions on Russia. Therefore, the feeble Russian economy will find it a bit easier to cope with the next portion of restrictions.
The poisoning of the only influential political opponent to the Kremlin will cost the authorities dearly. The White House is considering options of penalizing those who are to blame. Remarkably, Germany states that it is ready to join the sanctions against Nord Stream 2, though it used to insist on the commercial importance of the project and said it had nothing to do with geopolitics.
