pretext
alleged
bid to fund the war
accustomed to constant unpredictability
hoarding
stashing
useless bricks
odyssey
record high
Someone who knows more about finance than me will have to answer this one, but isn't having people convert real value in accounts into colored bits of paper of benefit to Putin? He can make as many colored bits of paper appear as he wants in order to fund his war, and as long as it's being hoarded and not spent he gets to keep playing.