2022 Russian Rubles Crash

About

2022 Russian Rubles Crash refers to the official currency of Russia, the ruble, drastically decreasing in value due to Russian President Vladimir Putin ordering the invasion of Ukraine amidst the 2021-2022 Russia-Ukraine conflict that escalated in late February 2022. As a result of the military invasion and ensuing economic sanctions, the Russian economy suffered with the value of the ruble dropping significantly in comparison to other major currencies like the European euro and the American dollar, as well as joke currencies like Roblox's Robux. Russian ruble memes surfaced most notably on Reddit and Twitter in late February and March 2022.

Origin

On February 24th, 2022, Twitter^[4] user YouSeeGundam posted a tweet that showed a stock graph of the Russian ruble compared to the U.S. Dollar, additionally including a screenshot of a comparison in value between the dollar and one Robux from the video game Roblox. YouSeeGundam proved in the tweet that the Russian ruble was worth less than one Robux and earned roughly 167,700 likes in one week (shown below, left).

On February 27th, 2022, AFP News reported via a tweet^[1] that the Russian ruble was down 30 percent due to sanctions levied by the Western world including the United States, Great Britain and other European countries. The tweet cited an article from Bloomberg News^[2] that stated the ruble was indicated to be down 27 percent at 114.33 per dollar in offshore trading. The tweet (shown below, right) received roughly 2,000 likes in four days. The same information was shared to Reddit's /r/stocks^[3] on the 27th, earning roughly 2,000 upvotes in the same amount of time.

Spread

Memes about the ruble's worth appeared on Twitter first amid the realization that the ruble was worth less than the Robux on February 24th, 2022. For instance, Twitter^[5] user YouSeeGundam posted a follow-up meme to their tweet, captioning a GIF of a child sadly performing a Fortnite dance with, "Russians being forced to earn currency on Survive The Natural Disasters like Venezuelans farming gold in RuneScape," earning roughly 10,600 likes in one week (shown below).

Russians being forced to earn currency on Survive The Natural Disasters like Venezuelans farming gold in RuneScape pic.twitter.com/BsXUJW6MW4

— YouSeeGundam (@YouSeeGundam) February 24, 2022

On February 25th, meme creators on Reddit started referencing the ruble's depletion in value compared to the Robux, like Redditor SomeRandomMoray, who posted a meme to /r/whenthe^[6] on the 25th, earning roughly 20,400 upvotes in six days (shown below, left). The same day, Redditor DankCrusaderMemer also referenced Robux in the caption of their Russian rubles meme, posting it to /r/PoliticalCompassMemes^[7] and receiving roughly 3,600 upvotes in six days (shown below, right).

On February 27th, following the 30 percent drop in value reported by Bloomberg,^[2] more memes referencing the Russian ruble's value appeared on Reddit. For instance, on February 28th, Redditor SicarioCercops posted a meme to /r/dankmemes^[8] that earned roughly 25,900 upvotes in four days (shown below, top). Twitter^[9] user CartonOfEgg posted a meme on the same day that used the Fernanfloo Dresses Up template, earning roughly 1,800 likes in the same amount of time (shown below, bottom).

Many memes on Reddit started to compare the ruble to the euro and the U.S. dollar, depicting these Western currencies as more stable in comparison and equating lump sums of these currencies to "one ruble." For instance, on February 28th, Redditor DingoCertain posted a meme to /r/dankmemes^[10] that earned roughly 6,100 upvotes in four days (shown below, left). Also on the 28th, Redditor Surcrivor posted a meme to /r/memes^[11] that received roughly 7,700 upvotes in the same amount of time (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References