Russia has become uninvestable

Geopolitics can create opportunities – but there are times when discretion is the better part of valour.

Putin has rendered Russia uninvestable
Mad Vlad Putin © 
(Image credit: © Getty Images)

A couple of weeks ago, back when Russia was still deemed unlikely to invade Ukraine, we noted that history suggests that markets as a whole tend to get over geopolitical shocks quickly. As a result, we said, other than holding gold as a hedge (which you should be doing anyway), there wasn’t anything you should change in terms of your asset allocation. We also said that if you wanted to bet specifically on tensions diminishing, the easiest way to do so was via the JPMorgan Russian Securities investment trust.

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John Stepek

John Stepek is a senior reporter at Bloomberg News and a former editor of MoneyWeek magazine. He graduated from Strathclyde University with a degree in psychology in 1996 and has always been fascinated by the gap between the way the market works in theory and the way it works in practice, and by how our deep-rooted instincts work against our best interests as investors.

He started out in journalism by writing articles about the specific business challenges facing family firms. In 2003, he took a job on the finance desk of Teletext, where he spent two years covering the markets and breaking financial news.

His work has been published in Families in Business, Shares magazine, Spear's Magazine, The Sunday Times, and The Spectator among others. He has also appeared as an expert commentator on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, BBC Radio Scotland, Newsnight, Daily Politics and Bloomberg. His first book, on contrarian investing, The Sceptical Investor, was released in March 2019. You can follow John on Twitter at @john_stepek.