geoff cutmore here in moscow. >> vivid imagery from mr. putin indeed and in the meantime today, general motors announced it's slamming the brakes on deliveries to new car dealers in russia, because the ruble there fallen so hard so quickly that auto prices in the country are skyrocketing. >>> well, moving now to the latest in cuba after yesterday's stunner that the u.s. and cuba will normalize diplomatic relations and permit freer travel and trade. now both big and small businesses from the u.s. and inside cuba are gearing up to compete in a whole new economic marketplace. michelle caruso-cabrera is in havana. >> reporter: here in cuba, a muted reaction to the announcement made simultaneously by president obama in u.s. and the leader, raul castro. here we won't see major rallies where thousands bust in across the country. the city center, listened to hours worth of speeches, something perhaps would have seen in the past. but we did see last night, a small celebration by university students who were pro-government and were happy about the r

let's cross life to geoff cutmore who is in moscow. what do you make of the recent statements coming out of prime minister medvedev? >> well, i think it fits the pattern, doesn't it? the administration is trying to get ahead of this rapid decline that we've seen in the ruble so far this week in excess of 20%. we got that dramatic hike in interest rates down 17%. then we heard the central bank had been intervening to the tune of nearly $2 billion. after that, the finance ministry statement suggesting that they would go into the market and they had potentially $7 billion to get involved and now this latest statement suggesting that the ruble is out of their comfortable zone for the economy. so you've got two types of intervention taking place here. one is the physical to go in and start to intervene physically to try to get the ruble decline stopped. and the verbal intervention, the threat potentially that the government would take further steps that might change the way in which this market operates. and it's interesting in those flashes

let's get out to geoff cutmore who is live in moscow. help us understand what the reaction has been from citizens, from russians in response to what putin had to say, geoff. >> yeah. well, i think it's interesting. let's look at the markets for a moment, seema. this rally we're seeing across the board is clearly about the fed. but the president here has the potential, maybe, to knock off some of those gains and the fact that that hasn't happened suggests, i think, that the market reads his comments in a broadly positive light. and he did come out and say the russian economy will achieve growth. he thinks this year 0.6%. the government revenues will be higher. spending will be positive. the government finances. and he also talked a lot about the central bank and the intervention. he said yes, intervention could come a step quicker as far as the central bank is concerned. but he is supportive of the response that's been taken. i guess if there was anything disappointment for those who would like to buy the ruble today, it was that he didn't

geoff cutmore brings us the latest. geoff cutmore with the visa. hey, geoff. >> yeah, hey. yeah, the shell is just to get a multi entry one in there for a year. and then anytime you've got a crisis you're on that plane and you're straight back. you're not missing too much weatherwise. it's about zero degrees right now and we're expecting snow. so it is going to get chilly. let's move away from the weather, though, because i want to talk about what we've heard over the last 30 minutes. the prime minister has come out and said the currency is now outside of the comfort zone for the economy and he has singled out russian exporters and suggested maybe part of the problem here. to some that sounds like nibbling away at some form of currency control. what they could do is sell the exporters that they need to start selling some of their hard currency stash, their foreign currencies to try and provide some support here for the ruble. so we have that. we know the finance ministry is in the game now. they've got about $7 billion worth of foreign currency that they've threatened to se

cnbc's geoff cutmore is live for us in moscow. what's the latest, geoff? >> reporter: yeah, it's interesting, isn't it. there were some small protests, but tyler, to be honest, president putin's approval rating still remains high here. a lot of that is down to how russians feel he's behaved on ukraine. but just briefly on the economy, then, he said the economy should begin to recover over the next two years. and he said a lot of the reasons for the fall in the ruble are external factors like the sanctions and the oil price. let's just listen to what he had to say. >> i do not think i could call the situation a crisis, or you may call it whatever you want. but i believe that i said quite clearly that the central bank and the government on the whole are acting correctly. >> reporter: so relatively reassuring words on the economy. and we did get a spike in the stock market here. so russians seem to have put some money back to work here. just on the ukraine, obviously classic putin. he pointed the finger at the west and said you're responsible for escalating t

cnbc's geoff cutmore joins us live from london. geoff, as i understand it, jurors are going to hear from a major witness in all of this. who's the witness and explain more about the case. >> yeah. this is fascinating. and a little creepy because steve jobs will be speaking from beyond the grave, if you like. it's a video deposition that he put together as it relates to this case involving the ipod. this is a decade-old case. the argument is that itunes ran software that forced people to use the ipod to download the music, and therefore they paid more. so the class action lawsuit alleges that people paid in excess of $350 million more than they should have done because they had to use the ipod rather than other technology. this obviously is a big case for apple. we will hear from or at least the court will hear from steve jobs in this video deposition. so that's going to be fascinating to keep your eye on. you were talking about the cyber monday sales here. well, good numbers. we think cyber monday sales probably up 16% against a yea

cnbc's geoff cutmore joins us live from london. geoff, what can we expect? will the trend continue as we get into the holiday week? obviously, we have days off with the market closing. >> absolutely. absolutely. it does seem as though the momentum is back with the bulls here. so we are expecting a slightly positive open to the markets. a couple of things just to point out to you. obviously it is a short week, so we'll only get a few trading sessions here to lift these indices. and the other one is we are expecting final third quarter gdp. that will just be a print-out, really, of where we are in the growth number. so as long as there are no real surprises there, it doesn't look like there's anything on the horizon short term to destabilize this better tone to the markets. one thing, though, just keep your eye on the oil price because it hasn't all been good news as far as the markets are concerned as the oil prices fall. and the volatility has upset people. but it is just worth bearing in mind for all of us who are out there driving on the highways, it has b

geoff cutmore reports from moscow on how long putin thinks the troubles will last.

geoff cutmore reports from moscow on how long putin thinks the troubles will last. and sony

geoff cutmore joins us on set. andrew chief, asset straft gist and eric wilson from unicredit. gan by asking about the 3.5% growth for 2015 was such a bad figure. >> it's the long-term average, but the long-term average included recession periods. i think the main issue is we are now at very low inflation, so it's very dangerous. we might flip into deflation if something goes wrong out there. it's shocking if you're at 3.2, 3.5% growth, it's very easy to see things going wrong. >> so the what you do with asset prices at this point. if joakim is right, then we're going to the moon with central banks that judge the system with liquidity. >> you have a 2015 that's going to see better growth than 2014, yet you'll still have central banks that we think rightly are more afraid of a deflationary tale scenario. i think that combination will push equity credits higher and spreads higher. >> so when william dudley tells us in an exclusive interview with steve liesman that it's reasonable to expect a 2015 rate hike, is he just plain wrong? >> well, you know, our view is that the fed will n

geoff cutmore in moscow. he did say he would take into consideration the idea being more accurate with the opposition. hard to tell what that means. >> look, i think this guy teased us. i know there is a propensity to talk about what the central banks do. this guy worries me. he looks like a regular guy. he talks like a regular politician. the guy is just a terrible dictator who is capable of doing anything. even though he looks good and they had a terrific commercial before it began telling you to watch him as kind of a hollywood thing. this guy is one of the reasons why you can't get too bullish. until he actually does something concrete, and i'm not just saying resign, but this guy is a menace. i think if he did blink we would get 10% rally. he didn't blink. >> what's blinking? >> blinking is saying, listen, i'm satisfied that if nato doesn't move on my borders and we get a defined zone, not a corridor to crimea, being a reference to what hitler wanted from the brits and what he wanted from his enemy, so t

. >> geoff cutmore joins us now from moscow. good day, geoff. >> yeah, hi, joe. what a roller coaster ride for the ruble. but finally the government seems to have got in front of the falling night for the ruble juggernaut to the downside, whatever you want to describe it as, after president putin said he thought the economy would start recovering in a couple of years, that the central bank would take more measures. we've seen today an expansion of the 30-day repo. they're going to give anybody who wants it about $5 billion worth of foreign currency. that should help ease liquidity concerns. we've seen the finance industry putting a bill to parliament for about a trillion rubles to the banking sector. that's about 16.5 billion at current rate. so we now see a much more aggressive reaction from the government to try to deal with this ruble downside. but i have to say, i think sentiment this friday remains relatively fragile on the economy. the trade is edgy. it would only take some more bad news in thin volume markets for us to see the ruble start to decline again.