Putin continues to up the ante now blocks imports but ruble still = 34 cents

Well the Russian ruble has just reached the value of about 34 cents on the $US dollar. That's a spike since the last time I checked the value at 28 cents on the $US dollar.

Nevertheless, even with this measly increase in the ruble's value, Russian President Putin announced a "tit for tat" embargo on imports, to retaliate for economic sanctions imposed on his nation by the USA. Rather than save the Russian economy billions in costs to fund a military build up to test Ukrainian resolve and the cuts being imposed via economic sanctions, Putin puffed up his ego yet again and announced a block on imports.

Who's hurt by a block on imports? It's always the middle class who are impacted because the cash heavy rich can access whatever they want want on the black market.

Moscow (CNN) -- President Vladimir Putin has banned food and agricultural imports from countries that imposed sanctions against Russia because of its actions in Ukraine.

Putin signed the decree Wednesday, calling it an order "on the use of separate special economic measures aimed at ensuring the security of the Russian Federation."

The move comes more than a week after the United States and European Union increased economic sanctions on Moscow for supporting pro-Russian separatists fighting Ukraine government forces in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, along the border with Russia.

Meanwhile, CNN also reports that the search for the tragic victims of the Malaysian air MH17 has stalled, because Russia

doesn't want the international community to find proof of how the airliner was shot out of the sky by a surface to air missile.

Moreover, it's certainly an intentional assault on US corporations involved in the economic sanctions Putin is retaliating against, that over one million email access passwords were corrupted by Russian computer hackers.

At the end of this "tit for tat" litany, Putin is acting like the gorilla in the zoo who wants attention.  Regardless of what the western nations do to prevent Russia from creating havoc with the Ukraine, Putin, will simply beat his chest and howl like Tarzan in the jungle.  

Meanwhile, as Putin forces his import embargo on the people of Russia, the rich will seek out black market supplies without regard for the costs. A healthy black market already exists in Russia but now it will balloon into a sub cultural illicit corporation.

And the Russian ruble is still worth a measly 38 cents.

It's time for somebody to teach President Putin about economic 101. In other words, he can't sustain his nation's economy on nearly worthless ruble.