Bank Run Sweeps Across Russia As Fears Of A Bank Meltdown Continue To Rise

Bank runs are sparking panic in Russia as citizens fear that a banking system meltdown occurs. Sanctions from the West have tied the hands of Russia’s central bank, leaving the agency without any power to prevent a catastrophic run on the ruble and consequently lead to the crash of the currency. The U.S., the U.K., and Canada all imposed sweeping restrictions on the Russian central bank to impede the agency from deploying its nearly $630 billion in international reserves to mitigate the impact of other Western sanctions, which include blocking some private Russian banks from SWIFT – a system that allows thousands of global financial institutions to communicate and authorize payments. The exclusion from SWIFT has shaken Russia’s financial markets, leaving international traders, domestic investors, and bank customers extremely worried about the potential of sudden currency debasement. As markets opened this morning, millions of people started to rush to local ATMs to withdraw their money before they lost acces