Anybody preaching that Russian stocks are somehow a massive and obvious buy here might be short-sighted with regard to the geopolitical fallout of an outright invasion. Russia could very well become the next Venezuela and their progress back 30 years through the actions of the last 2 weeks.

Nevertheless, its also just as easy to come up with 1,000 reasons why one should avoid buying Russian stocks. As an eternal optimist, I can see a lot of paths where de-escalate and things normalize over the coming years. I'm seeing a DeMARK 13 sequential countdown compete on the RSX ETF which indicates the downside trend might be coming to an end.

I am also seeing how this low was right into the TD Absolute Retracement level. I do think that a small starter position with the fundamental understanding that you could:

1. Lose your entire outlay

2. Be locked out for months or years

3. Combination of both

Having said all that, it seems like we have basically discounted everything expect a nuclear war. Personally, I could care less if I lost money in Russian stocks at that point. The risk-reward looks pretty good to put a minuscule amount of capital to work and not look at it for a few years.