Gazprom's 17-Year Collapse and the Bleeding Moscow Exchange

Trading on the Moscow Exchange was shaken as shares of Russian energy giant Gazprom plummeted to a 17-year low, touching the 90 ruble mark.

Deepening Pains in Russian Equities

■By 14:20 local time, the MOEX index extended daily losses to 2.7%, settling at 2,112 points.

■The dollar-denominated RTS index mirrored this decline, dropping 2.7% to 858 points.

■On a monthly basis, the MOEX has shed approximately 16% of its value, while the RTS index has suffered a steeper collapse of 21%.

The China Fear in Energy Geopolitics

■Market sentiment is deteriorating amid reports in the international press suggesting that the Power of Siberia 2 project, central to Russia's pivot to Asia, may be suspended.

■Having lost the European market due to sanctions following the Ukraine war, Gazprom faces bottlenecks in its plan to offset this deficit with shipments to China.

This sharp decline represents not merely a corporate retreat but a market repricing of the failure in Russia's energy diversification strategy. High-frequency trading (HFT) algorithms are instantly reflecting this geopolitical risk premium into swap rates, while investors offload positions in Gazprom to price in the fractures within the Kremlin's economic transition model.