A late-night unveiling of an emergency interest rate increase to 17 percent has failed to stop the Russian ruble from plummeting into freefall against the US dollar, prompting the worst economic crisis in Russia since the country's financial meltdown and debt default in 1998.
Russia's War Against Ukraine
VICE News: Emergency interest rate hike fails to stop ruble’s freefall as Russia’s economic crisis deepens
Pedestrians walk along a board listing foreign currency rates against the Russian ruble outside an exchange office in central Moscow on December 12, 2014.
