Russian Investor Toasts the Death of Country’s Stock Market on Live TV: ‘Rest in Peace, Dear Comrade’

A Russian investor got on TV and toasted the death of the national stock market as Russia faces crippling economic sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine.

The expert, identified as Alexander Butmanov, joined a Russian financial news program that National Review’s Jim Geraghty described as “the Russian equivalent of CNBC.” NBC News’ Raf Sanchez flagged a translation of Butmanov’s appearance, and it seems that he shocked his TV colleagues with some morbidly-cheery commentary on how the future looks for him and the Russian economy.

Butmanov was asked if he has any hope of remaining in the career of a stock market strategist, and he answered “In the worst-case scenario, I’ll be working as Santa Claus just like 25 years ago.”

“Excluding jokes, let’s do this quickly,” Butmanov continued. He then pulled out a bottle of sparkling water, held it up in front of the camera, and offered his regards to Sergey Usichenko, the Russian investor who publicly toasted the national economy over a decade ago when it was facing a dire outlook.

“Dear stock market, you were close to us, you were interesting. Rest in peace, dear comrade,” Butmanov cheered. The program anchor looked on in stunned silence before saying, “I’m not going to comment on this stunt because I don’t want to believe it.”

The moment came as Russia’s stock market has been shut down for days, and their economy is flailing as sanctions and international financial freezes resulting from the invasion of Ukraine have taken their toll

[H/T Jim Geraghty]

Watch above.