marcus carlton joins me. we are going to take a look at russia and the action it is taking to mitigate the fallout from the crisis in ukraine. >> western powers are threatening new sanctions against russia and that the same time the russian central bank has raised interest rates for the second time in two months. the benchmark rate was increased to seven and a half percent by the central bank. it is concerned with inflation and it is seen as an attempt to defend the russian currency which has fallen this year. the central blank -- bank acknowledges it is causing uncertainty for the russian economy. the interest rates hike coincides with the downgrade of russia's credit rating by standard & poor's. it has cut its rating to triple b minus, one notch above junk. the s&p quoted an outflow of capital in the first quarter and also warned the rating could be cut again if western sanctions against russia over ukraine worsened. there are warnings that the downgrades could hurt russia at a sensitive time for the econom