Diplomacy still prevails: Russian assets with biggest upside
smartmoney.onethe US and NATO have no missiles in Ukraine and are not planning to deploy them. The US leader reiterated that Russia would face "powerful sanctions" if it launches a military attack against its neighbour, but more focused on the potential of diplomacy and the willingness to negotiate. However, the US said that it sees no evidence that Russia is pulling back troops from the border with Ukraine, suggesting that the threat of invasion remains in place, it was later today confirmed by NATO secretary-general and Ukraine president.Overall, Biden's speech comes on top of two important positive factors of recent days - Olaf Scholz's statement that Ukraine's accession to NATO is not on the agenda, and the start of the withdrawal of Russian troops from the border with Ukraine. If Russia officially recognizes the independence of the Donetsk and Lugansk republics, all recent diplomatic efforts will prove useless, the Russian market will face another rout, but we rule out such a scenario, since we believe that Moscow will take this step as a last resort.For Biden, the escalation of the stand-off with Russia became a key factor of his political career.Consumer inflation driven by energy costs is at its highest point in more than 40 years and has already sent the president's rating lower, to just below 43%.Consumer prices in the U.S.
reached a record 9.7% y/y in January due to higher energy prices.Risk appetite is and will continue to be driven by two factors: The first short-term factor is the further withdrawal of Russian troops from the border with Ukraine back to their bases in the eastern, western and southern military districts of Russia.