zOOmg! You post one UK and three US media links and you didn't expect Putin to appear full-on nutjob? Ой, как смешно!
If you really wanted to know, you shoulda checked out President Putin's Q&A session. There was a live-feed article for that in Rossiyskaya gazeta.
But with 4 western links and a 29 second quip from Live News, what did you expect?
To see the other side of the story:
рубль Путин
About the 29 second quip from Live News - You don't have to be an economist to understand Forex Trading. And with a plunging ruble that can be serious profits when the ruble rises again.
Forex Trading
I totally do get why Putin and the Central Bank stopped propping up the ruble. I mean, why lose valuable assets when a huge plunge can create seriously profitable currency exchanges. It's a Russian gold mine, right now, for Russia.
EDIT:
Also this.
http://www.rg.ru/2014/12/19/sankcii-site.html
If those EU sanctions get lifted then the ruble value will definitely rise.