Russia’s president Vladimir Putin has made yet another public appearance to increase the confidence of his citizens as Russia is heading towards a potentially severe recession. As could be expected, ‘Vlad’ was once again criticizing the West for its economic sanctions against Russia as he blamed the USA and the European Union for the country’s current problems.

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He also strongly reacted against the statement of the former Minister of Finance of Russia who said that Russia’s economic growth model was outdated and that a new solution would have to be found. Putin dismissed this idea as he obviously remains convinced that Russia’s situation isn’t that bad at all despite the fact all market observers are expecting a tough economic crisis as the country is unable to rely on the continuous income stream of its oil sales which was particularly helpful to manage the country’s budget the past few years.

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Surprisingly enough, the Russian Ruble has regained a lot of ground versus the US Dollar and the Ruble is very likely one of the strongest (if not, the strongest) performer as the USD/RUB exchange rate dropped from 70 to less than 50 in just 10 weeks. The main question now is what on earth is causing this extremely strong appreciation of the Russian Ruble. It’s definitely not the oil price as Russia will need a substantially higher oil price to get its budget sorted out again.

Meanwhile, Russia and Greece are teaming up to bully the European leaders whilst Athens is negotiating another rescue package. Even though the Greek treasury is running on fumes, they have leaked the story they are looking to buy more missiles  for its anti-missile system from Russia, in an attempt to flex its muscles once again. The Germans already reacted furious and German magazine Der Spiegel called it the ‘Greek madness’.

It’s surprising to see how easy it is to rattle the Germans and without any doubt this is yet another negotiation strategy applied by Athens and of course Putin was more than willing to participate in this practical joke as Germany actually was Greece’s largest weapon supplier in the past 15 years. Even after the Euro-crisis and Greek crisis erupted, Berlin was trying to get Athens to commit to purchase several submarines, to the German government has dirty hands here as well.

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The clock is ticking for good old Greece and playing games isn’t really working in its favor at all. The country seems to be heading towards a frontal collision with both the other members of the Eurozone and the IMF which has refused Greece’s ‘unofficial’ request to defer the next large payment.

This continuous volatility on the political front is excellent for precious metals and hard commodities. Now more than ever, Europeans start to understand that hard assets definitely are the easiest way to protect their purchasing power. The demand for physical gold has been picking up in Greece and in other Euro-countries despite the fact the gold price in Euro is trading at the highest level in two years time.