Panic buying: Russians in St Petersburg grab bargains, fearing prices will rise due to the falling rouble. Photo: Bloomberg

Moscow: Seeking to calm growing fears of an economic meltdown, the Russian government on Wednesday introduced a package of measures to reduce pressures on banks and urged the public to stay calm. It seemed to work, at least temporarily.

By Wednesday evening, amid indications of a government intervention in the currency markets, the rouble had recovered more than 11 per cent of its previous day's losses.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev met with the leaders of Russian business, energy exporters including Rosneft and Gazprom, pledging government support for business and the rouble. President Vladimir Putin is on deck, and was scheduled to hold a televised news conference on Thursday in which he was expected to address the recent financial turmoil.

"The Central Bank and the government have worked out a package of measures to stabilise the situation," Mr Medvedev said, according to a government transcript. "We will act in a coordinated way here. What we are seeing today is mostly playing on emotions."

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It was a notable turnaround from the previous evening, when Russians with roubles in hand fanned out to foreign currency exchanges and electronics stores, looking to beat looming price increases. Opponents of Putin lined up to declare that his title as a guarantor of economic stability had been proved false.

Russia's 20 richest people lost billions of dollars this week after the rouble crashed and the country's sharemarket fell to its lowest point since 2009.

Expatriate Russians were also rapidly infected by the financial panic.  The crisis in Russia wiped billions from the fortunes of some of Britain's wealthiest tycoons and led to a spate of property panic-buying across London. British-based oligarchs, including Roman Abramovich and Alisher Usmanov, have seen their overall fortunes plummet in recent months, according to financial analysts. Other Moscow-based billionaires have been relocating to Britain in the hope of escaping the crisis enveloping the former Soviet Union. A number of high-end estate agents have reported being inundated with inquiries from wealthy Russians looking to buy up some of the capital's most exclusive addresses. 

Beauchamp Estates said it had seen up to a 10 per cent rise in sales of high-end London homes to Russians since the rouble began its downward spiral a year ago. "I currently have half a dozen Russian clients urgently looking to spend over £20 million ($38 million) each on buying a new home in central London. For them the address must be Belgravia, Knightsbridge, Mayfair and Regent's Park. It's got to be a prestigious postcode and ideally a park-side or leafy address," said Gary Beauchamp, the firm's founder

He said there had also been a significant rise in the number of Russians looking to buy investment properties. "Previously it was all end-use real estate, but now that their commercial ventures in Moscow have slowed, they are seeing London real estate investment as a commercial opportunity. So, like the Chinese, they are now starting to purchase rental investment property and commercial assets. This has not been seen before in London by them in large numbers," he added.

Becky Fatemi, managing director of Rokstone estate agent said that the number of Russian clients on her books has doubled this year. "There has been a big upturn in Russian buyers since the collapse of the rouble and the slowdown in the Russian economy due to international sanctions," she said. "The Christmas season has not stopped them looking. Currently, I have several Russian clients looking to spend up to £100 million ($190 million) on a home in London." She added: "Buyers tend to be families and business people who originate from Moscow who buy big detached homes, not basement or ground floor flats, for security reasons."

There were signs the Russian government was making overturesto Russia's business community. On Wednesday evening, Russian prosecutors unexpectedly freed VladimirYevtushenkov, the oligarch owner of the Sistema conglomerate, from house arrest during an investigation of what critics dismissed as trumped-up charges of embezzlement. The accusations and seizure of Bashneft, an oil producer that he acquired in 2009, were seen as a significant blow to property rights in Russia. He was not freed, however, before Bashneft was nationalised.

The announcement drew parallels to Mr Putin's unexpected pardoning a year ago of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the jailed Russian oligarch considered the country's most famous political prisoner, at his annual news conference. With Mr Putin set to speak tomorrow, his spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, said on national television Wednesday that there was cause for some optimism for the Russian economy.

"In 2008, if you remember, Putin came out and said, 'It is a crisis, I am assuming responsibility, everything will turn out right,'" Mr Peskov said. "Did it turn out right? It did. Let's hope for the best this time, too".

New York Times; Telegraph, London