Russia

Russia holds dollar reserves and settles trade in USD. Every time the Fed expands M2, that premium compounds against the RUB, on top of domestic inflation.

CPI: World Bank (FP.CPI.TOTL.ZG). US M2: Federal Reserve FRED (M2SL). Reserve premium = cumulative M2 growth − cumulative US CPI.

In late February 2022, the ruble collapsed almost overnight. Within weeks of the invasion of Ukraine, the USD/RUB rate blew past 130 — roughly double where it had been. Western financial journalists declared the ruble a near-worthless currency. Then something strange happened: it bounced back, touching 55 by June 2022. Economists weren't confused for long. Capital controls, mandatory forex conversion rules for exporters, and a collapsed import sector meant rubles were artificially scarce. The exchange rate recovered. The economy didn't.

The real story lives in Russian inflation, which ran at roughly 17% annualized in early 2022 before the central bank aggressively raised rates to 20%. By 2023 and into 2024, inflation remained sticky — officially around 7-9%, with independent estimates often higher for everyday goods. Moscow grocery prices, utility costs, and anything with an import component hit ordinary Russians hard in ways the headline exchange rate obscured. A ruble that looks stable against the dollar doesn't help if it buys fewer potatoes in Novosibirsk.

For the Russian diaspora in Berlin, Tel Aviv, or Dubai, the calculation is particular. Sending money home got cheaper when the ruble recovered — but recipients are spending in an economy where Western goods vanished, gray-market substitutes cost more, and the Central Bank of Russia has been in a sustained fight against domestic inflation. The official rate is one number. The real purchasing power your family gets is another.

This is also a unique case of forced de-dollarization. Russia actively pushed businesses and citizens away from dollar holdings — yet dollar dependency didn't disappear, it went underground. The calculator here cuts through the political noise and shows you the actual purchasing power comparison, year by year, so you can see what your money genuinely gets on either side of that exchange.