Apple Stops Online Sales in Russia Over Ruble Fluctuations - Bloomberg

Falling petroleum prices and international sanctions are being blamed for the looming crash of Russia's currency. The ruble lost 18% over the last two days

In a surprise move today, the Russian central bank raised interest rates by the most in 16 years, taking its benchmark to 17 percent. That failed to halt the rout in the ruble, which has plummeted to about 70 rubles a dollar from 34 as oil prices dived by almost half to below $60 a barrel. Russia relies on the energy industry for as much as a quarter of economic output, Moody’s Investors Service said in a Dec. 9 report.

Why not just require payment in a dollar or Euro denominated credit card when shipping to Russia? This being said: no great loss. I can't think of a single new Crapple product that I really want at this point.

^ The CPU market has been rather stagnant lately. Maybe once we see more of the 14 nanometer (insane!!!) chips from Intel we will see some good power and battery increases.

__________________
1985 CA 300D Turbo , 213K mi

Might be a great buying opportunity on russian ebay. Never looked but suspect they have one or similar platform.

If I wanted to take a vacation to Moscow, I'd just bring a half dozen or so iPads, sell them on their equivalent of Craigslist, and demand payment with a credit card/hard currency.

. . . and then they find you floating in Moskva River with large lump on the back of your skull . .

Unlikely -- I know people who did that in Poland and Hungary before iDevices became available, and they survived quite well. Lots of people want to do business without knocking you on the head, especially if there's a promise of repeat business

That reminds me of the opening minutes of The Third Man, when the narrator was discussing the fate of amateur black marketeers in postwar Vienna...