Is there any reason to believe that Putin and his cronies did not build up massive short positions before Russia made its move? If you can tank world wide stock markets at will, why not use that power to your advantage?
I don't know much about stock markets, but the question I'd ask is whether it is in any way feasible to build up a short position that is "massive" on a scale that would be of interest to a Russian oligarch, as opposed to you or me, say, and whether it would be feasible to build up even a fairly tiny (for a Russian oligarch) short possition without it drawing a lot of attention.
Yeah, that’s what I’m wondering, too. I just posted an Ask HN on this.