During the time that the meeting of the Security Council of the Russian Federation was held with the participation of Russian President Vladimir Putin, at which the issue of recognizing the independence of the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics was discussed, the Moscow Exchange index fell by 12%. The dollar is trading at more than 79 rubles, the euro is already more expensive than 90 rubles.
The exchange index fell below 3100 points, which is the lowest quote since November 2020. The prices for the euro and the dollar rose on February 21 by more than two rubles. Shares fell by almost 10%, Gazprom – by almost 8%, Lukoil – by 6%, Yandex – by 7%.
It is worth noting that as of the morning of February 21, trading on the Moscow Exchange showed growth, but after the appearance of information that Putin had convened an extraordinary meeting of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, the indicators began to fall.
Vladimir Putin promised to make a decision on the issue of recognizing the independence of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics today.
It is worth noting that today, February 21, the heads of the self-proclaimed republics Denis Pushilin and Leonid Pasechnik addressed the Russian leader with a request to recognize their independence.
Recall that earlier the deputies of the State Duma decided to adopt a resolution on an appeal to the President of the Russian Federation with a proposal to recognize the independence of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics. 351 deputies voted for the document, 16 were against, and one parliamentarian abstained.
Last week, commenting on the appeal of parliamentarians, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that recognition of the independence of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics would be a violation of the Minsk agreements. Peskov also recalled that Vladimir Putin himself had previously stated that for him, when resolving the situation in the South-East of Ukraine, “the implementation of the Minsk Package of Measures” is important.
