Yesterday, the Russian stock market shed nearly 2.5% of its value. Since July 24th, it has lost 150 points or over 7% of its total value, giving up nearly every rouble of the gain it had experienced since the beginning of the month (as shown in the roller-coaster-like graphic above).

Do you dare to imagine what would be happening in the Russian stock market if the price of oil were NOT absurdly high? Anyone who puts their money into this so-called "market," which is really nothing more than rigged gambling casino run by the mafia, is quite simply insane.

The Moscow Times reports:

Russian stocks dropped sharply Wednesday as a slump on Wall Street on Tuesday caused by concern over the U.S. subprime-mortgage rout prompted investors to sell riskier assets. Sberbank, the country's biggest bank, and Gazprom, the country's largest company, led the decline. Brent crude for September delivery ended on a high of $78.21 per barrel Tuesday in New York, but even these strong prices were not enough to dissuade investors from selling Russian energy shares. LUKoil dropped 3.9 percent to $77.70 per share, while Rosneft declined by 2.28 percent to $8.15. The ruble-denominated MICEX index slumped 2.4 percent to 1693.14. Four stocks advanced and 26 retreated. The dollar-denominated RTS index lost 2.4 percent to 1946.34. Sberbank dropped 3 percent to 101.92 rubles on the MICEX. Financial services stocks worldwide were hit Wednesday, with the MSCI World Financials Index falling 1.5 percent. Gazprom tumbled 3.4 percent to $10.53 on the RTS. The company is the biggest constituent of the Morgan Stanley Capital International Emerging Markets Index, a global benchmark. Shares of Norilsk Nickel retreated 2.4 percent to 5,562.43 rubles as nickel and copper fell on the London Metal Exchange. Nickel for three-month delivery slipped 1.9 percent to $30,850 a ton, dropping to within $650 of its six-month low. (Bloomberg, MT)