What would you do if one day you woke up in a country where national currency had lost nearly half of it's value in a couple of months?

What would you do if you then realized that this down-trend shows no sign of stopping and your monthly purchasing power has decreased dramatically, even though your "on paper" salary stays the same?

You would probably hurry to exchange your existing savings to US dollars or other global currency and hold on to this currency for as long as the crisis lasts.

If you were really ambitions, you could even profit by executing short sales on the falling currency, or by short-selling stocks of the companies in affected industries.

But I bet your first reaction wouldn't be: "Hey, my local currency is dropping out of the sky, I got the get out and buy a Porsche!". And that's because you're not Russian.

Russians, apparently, have a different view on the ongoing events, and different methods of coping with recession.

Few days ago I read an amusing article in Bloomberg.com, which said that luxury car sales in Russia have increased as much as 50% in November. This coincides with time when ruble decline accelerated and caused a widespread concern amongst Russians.

According to the article and a clip on Bloomberg TV, this luxury car sale surge was more pronounced for specific brands - Porsche and Lexus, and especially dramatic for Porsche Cayenne. Other premium brands like Audi or BMW didn't have as much success.

Perhaps Russians figure that Porsche Cayenne has a better re-sale value than Audi A8 or BMW X5. I would argue that none of these cars are any good for wealth preservation. But current sentiment on Russian ruble is so bad, that spending money on anything seems like a smart move. And it doesn't matter what that "anything" is, as long as those Russian rubles are spent and converted to something tangible.

Let's also not forget that car is much more than a transportation tool in Russia. It is statement of wealth and power. That's why there are so many Cayennes and other big luxury cars in cities like Moscow.

Many Russians would spend a great chunk of their savings on expensive car anyway. For them, the ongoing currency crisis just seems like a good time to "pull the trigger".