Page 11 - RusRPTFeb23

resolved "yet this was precisely what gave Ukraine invaluable time." She expressed doubt that at that time NATO states would have been able to support Kiev to the extent that they do now. Russian President Vladimir Putin later said that her remarks were absolutely unexpected and disappointing.
2.3 Russia’s equity market thumped in 2022
In Russia the “fear index” hit a historical high in 2022 and the Russian stock market was more volatile than the pandemic years.
The RVI index (an indicator of the volatility of the Russian market, which is also called the “fear index”) reached a maximum of 169.96 points at the end of March. This is the highest figure since November 2013 for the formation of this indicator.
For comparison: in March 2021, the value of the RVI index was 30-34 points, and in March 2020, during the pandemic crisis, it reached about 129 points.
By the end of 2022, the RVI value stabilised and dropped to 39 (as of December 30), which still remained higher than a year ago of 30–32.
Other indicators of the Russian stock market also showed the worst values since 2008. Thus, the ruble index of the Moscow Exchange (which includes shares of 42 largest Russian companies) lost almost 45% over the year, and the dollar RTS lost almost 40%.
In conditions of increased volatility, investors' investments in Russian shares turned out to be the least protected - some securities lost more than 50% of their value.
Foreign markets were also in the red - the S&P 500 lost about 20%. Simultaneously, infrastructural risks materialized: the foreign assets of Russians were frozen, first due to communication problems caused by sanctions against the Russian financial sector, and then due to sanctions against the National Settlement Depository (NSD) that holds the foreign assets of Russian investors.
At the end of 2021, Russian shares were the best performing in the world, but that changed abruptly after the investors of Ukraine. In 2022, the quotes of almost all Russian securities showed a significant decline and foreign investors have been barred from withdrawing their money completely.
In the first week of the new year the government announced that foreign investors could only withdraw their money if they were willing to sell them at a 50% discount. And even then the proceeds of a sale would be converted into rubles and help on special bank accounts. If the investor then wanted to expedite repatriation and take this money out of the country in dollars – for which special permission from the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) is need – then the investor has to make an additional “voluntary” contribution to the budget of 10% of the value of the shares.
11 RUSSIA Country Report February 2023 www.intellinews.com