Simon Fraser is in London.
I would leave Russia right now. But I can not quit my job.
Interest rates have been hiked, so he can not afford a mortgage in Moscow.
Millions of Russians like him are starting to feel the effects of Western economic sanctions designed to punish the country for invading Ukraine.
I am planning to find new customers abroad and move out of Russia with the money I was saving for the first part of the project.
People have been arrested for speaking against the party line. I didn't vote for those in power.
For security reasons, we are not using his full name or showing his face in this article. Some names have been changed.
The sanctions against Russia are being called an economic war because they aim to create a deep recession there. Western leaders hope the measures will change the thinking in the Kremlin.
Russians are seeing their savings wiped out. Their lives are being disrupted.
The sanctions against Russian banks include cutting them off from Visa and Mastercard.
The project manager in Moscow said he had been unable to use the metro because of this.
I always pay with my phone, but it didn't work. Some people had the same problem. The barriers are operated by the VTB bank, which is under sanctions, and can't accept Apple Pay.
I had to buy a metro card instead of paying in the store.
Russia raised its interest rate to 20% on Monday in response to the sanctions. The stock market is closed because of fears of a big sell-off.
The Kremlin says it has the resources to weather the sanctions.
Over the weekend, the central bank appealed for calm amid fears of a run on the banks, which happens when too many people try to withdraw money.
There are no dollars or roubles. "Well, there are roubles, but I am not interested in them," said a man who was at an ATM in Moscow.
I don't know what to do next. I'm afraid we're going to turn into North Korea or Iran right now.
If they can't get hold of it, buying foreign currency costs Russians 50% more than it did a week ago.
The dollar and euro traded for 75 and 80 roubles, respectively, at the start of the year. At one point on Monday, a dollar cost 114 roubles and a euro 127, setting new records.
The rouble-dollar rate has been a sensitive issue for Russians.
The dollar was the only hard currency Russians kept their savings in after the fall of the Soviet Union.
The people who had been sleeping on their money felt vindicated when Yeltsin's government went broke.
Various central bank measures helped assure Russians about the rouble. The amount of money Russians invest in the stock of Russian companies grew as deposits in Russian currency grew.
Russians always run to the nearest ATM to withdraw dollars when there is uncertainty.
This time has been the same.
Russians rushed to cashpoints when war broke out on Ukraine last week.
A man who is in his early 30s has just finished paying off his mortgage in Moscow. He says he can't relocate any time soon.
When the operation in Donbas began, I went to the ATM and withdrew my savings in Sberbank in dollars. I keep them under my pillow.
Half of my savings are in dollars and the rest in roubles. I will withdraw the lot if things get worse. I'm scared because I think there's going to be a lot of burglaries. It is what it is.
Images on social media have shown long lines at ATMs and money exchanges around the country, with people worried that their bank cards may not work or that limits will be placed on the amount of cash they can withdraw.
Within a few hours of the invasion, dollars and euros ran out. There is a cap on how many roubles you can withdraw, and limited amounts of those currencies have been available.
At one queue in Moscow, a man named Evgeny said he wanted to withdraw money to pay off his mortgage.
Everyone I know is anxious. Everyone is stressed. I think life will get worse. War is terrible.
I think all the countries use double standards and now big countries are deciding which one is cooler. Everyone is suffering.
Marat said that he did not experience any troubles on the first day he withdrew money. I withdrew my money in case.
I am not great at forecasting but I think our life will get worse. Time will tell.
The cash problem is not limited to Moscow and people have been rushing around to get dollars or euros.
An anonymous IT-specialist created a Telegram bot that automatically requests if there are euros or dollars in the ATMS of Tinkoff, a popular private bank, and if so, shares the location with subscribers.
Russia has an advanced banking system that allows people to pre-order cash via their banking apps.
You could still use an app to order a dollar for 140 roubles and a euro for 150 when the Russian central bank was hit with sanctions.
Customers of Sberbank had to go to its office to sign a form to use the app, as they could not order cash through it.
The banks deny there is a shortage of cash in ATMs, and analysts agree it is more likely that the shortage is an attempt to prevent a run on the banks.
The Kremlin has said that Russia is ready for the sanctions, but it has not said if businesses will be given extra help.
Ordinary Russians, who get their information from state-controlled television which repeats many of the Kremlin's lines, are expected to start seeing differences in their lives soon.
People in Moscow are waiting in food stores to buy food because they think there will be a shortage due to price rises or restrictions on trade.
As sanctions bite, Russian companies could stop production or cut hours. Many Russians are predicted to lose their jobs as the economy reels from being cut off from financial markets in the West.
When President Putin annexed the peninsula in the summer of 2014, people lined up for hours to get cash.
When the old exchange rate boards ran out of space, currency offices had to buy new ones.
The cost of a dollar back then was usually between 30 and 35 roubles.
Amalia Zatari is a reporter for the British Broadcasting Corporation in Moscow.
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