Amidst all the tragedy with Ukraine, it feels petty to report on credit ratings for Russia, but any bad news for the aggressor is a light in the darkness. Their national credit rating from the strangely named institute "Standard and Poor's", S&P for short, was just reduced from CCC- to CC. The scale is rather weird with ten steps from best to worst: AAA, AA, A, BBB, BB, B, CCC, CC, C and D. D means "bankrupt, dysfunctional economy, expect no return on investments", basically a gravestone, while C means "bankruptcy virtually certain", a mark of death and a rating nobody is expected to be able to improve. Russia is now just one step above that, and foreign investors are jumping ship as fast as they can - with the notable exception that Chinese companies have been "encouraged" by the Chinese government to increase their presence in Russia, to "take opportunity of the many business opportunities that are now opening up". It remains to be seen whether the Chinese government means to help Russia, or aims to exploit their weakness in the wake of the sanctions and the huge cost of the failed war. In either case, China can't prop up the failing Russian economy all by itself, and Russia has some very rough times ahead.
A country who recently had illusions of getting back into the illustrious group of the world's largest economies called G8 (now G7 with Russia out) is on the verge of bankruptcy, all because of one man's greed and lust for power. If the situation in Ukraine wasn't so horrific because of Russia's invasion, I would call for a celebration. Now, let's just try to find some small comfort in the fact that war crimes don't seem to pay.
