Crisis? What Crisis?

President Putin's major end of year press conference glossed over the current situation in Russia, almost echoing Jim Сallaghan's dismissiveness, paraphrased and immortalised in the Sun headline, "Crisis? What Crisis?"

source

So, what's the feeling among 'ordinary Russians'?


Speaking to friends and family over there, there are two distinct takes on the situation.

The first is 'we're paid in Roubles and buy things in Roubles, so it won't make any difference'. [not really getting the idea that foreign companies will want paying in their respective currencies and not in Roubles, see the recent effect on i-phones]

The second view is that people are panicking to varying degrees. One family had just bought a new kitchen and white goods at Ikea before the Rouble crashed (perfect timing!). They went back to get a couple of small items and Ikea had sold out of kitchens. Elsewhere, in a small town, a friend said that people were going crazy for imported products, especially electrical ones "for fear that the Rouble will disappear".