Russian Stocks Are Rallying

Following Sunday's Crimean referendum to join Russia, the U.S. responded by announcing sanctions.

But in a speech today, Putin reiterated his commitment to annex the Ukrainian region.

"We all used to belong to the same country: The Soviet Union," he said. "The Soviet Union has collapsed. The events happened in such a fast way that many of the countries didn't realize ... When Crimea ended up in a different state, Russia realized that not only Russia was robbed, but Russia was robbed in broad daylight."

"Crimea is a Russian land."

The Russian stock market is rallying today. It's currently up by around 1.5% in dollar terms. Still it's down 13% since the beginning of the year.