Then tell me why he had hundreds of billions of foreign currency, which is required to keep a currency afloat, overseas in Western nations.
If he was really anticipating it, he would’ve liquidated into gold.
Why is the interest rate doubled, stock market closed until further notice and the rouble at its worst in history.
Yes, it’s safe to say that he expected some sanctions but he wasn’t expecting this response.
It is important to acknowledge there is a knowledge gap from where we sit observing what is unfolding, lacking full privilege access to critical data. Without going too deep into complex economic matters, let me preface by stating a couple of facts; Russia faced the same type of coordinated attacks to a substantial extent when it annexed Crimea, showcasing the current events are extensions of similar exercises. Several countries in recent history that underwent war and conflict, often finding themselves on the opposing side of the West, got their foreign exchange reserves frozen (e.g., Afghanistan is just going through it as we speak), so to think Putin did not consider that standard scenario, a typical recurrent playbook move, is an underestimation.
Russia can still tap into several hundred billion dollars' worths of savings, over 1/3 of that being gold, excluding the imposed sanctions on foreign territory.