MOSCOW. Aug 17 (Interfax) - The Russian markets have little to celebrate as they mark the ninth anniversary of the August 1998 financial crisis, although this time its troubles are rooted outside the country rather than at home.

The default announced nine years ago caused the ruble to crash, inflation to soar and meltdown at many key banks. The ruble plummeted from 6.29 to 14.6 rubles/$1 and the gold and forex reserves shrank from $15.1 billion to a little over $3 billion in the space of just a month.

But Russia has thrived since then, thanks mainly to soaring commodity prices. The country has paid the bulk of its foreign debts off, the gold and forex reserves are breaking new records almost by the week - they stood at $420.2 billion on August 10 this year - and the Stabilization Fund, which collects the windfall oil revenue, has amassed more than 2 trillion rubles. The ruble is holding startlingly firm, and is now worth about as much against the dollar as a year after the crisis.

But for all this, the Russian markets are not in the best of moods. As the global downturn sparked off by the U.S. mortgage crisis escalates, the Russian stock market plummeted to a two-month low on August 16. The RTS stock index dropped more heavily than at any time since the start of the year.

Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak said on Thursday that the Finance Ministry was not surprised by the current volatility in the global markets. "The situation did not come as a surprise to the finance ministers," he said, adding that ministers at all forums warned each other of a possible market correction. "There is nothing to worry about" in the present situation in the world markets. "This is a correction," he said.