On September 21, the President of Russia announced the mobilization of Russian citizens to participate in a «special operation». Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu clarified that the state plans to call up 300,000 reservists. The mobilization was announced the day after the authorities of the so-called «Luhansk and Donetsk People’s Republics», as well as the administrations of the territories controlled by the Russian army of the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions of Ukraine announced the holding of referendums on joining Russia on September 23-27.

After the announcement of mobilization, Russian stocks began the trading session with a collapse: The Mosbirzhi index collapsed by almost 10%, to 2002 points (at least since mid-July), the RTS dollar index fell by almost 12%, to 1,017 points.

Yandex fell by 14%, Sberbank and Gazprom — by more than 7%, Lukoil — by more than 8%. 

At the beginning of the day, the exchange rate of the Russian ruble to the dollar reached 62 rubles, and to the euro — up to 64 rubles. Now it is 57.88 and 56.08, respectively. 

In the first minutes after the collapse, the market played back most of the fall: by 12:40, the decline in the Moscow Stock Exchange index slowed to 3.14%. In total, during trading on September 20-21, the index lost about 12%, having lost almost all growth over the previous month and a half.

An important event remains the Gazprom shareholders’ meeting, at which the fate of dividend payments will be decided. It is scheduled for September 30. Last time, the refusal of the gas giant from dividends collapsed the market, so investors are closely watching the upcoming meeting.