On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin noted that inflation in Russia has reached a steady downward trajectory as the government kept its focus on long-term development plans during instability.

"We reached the trajectory of a steady decline in inflation, which I consider extremely important. As of March 13, it was 4.4 percent year-on-year," Putin said at a Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs session.

He noted that growth rates are returning to positive values and industrial production, including manufacturing, is increasing.

"During the period of economic instability, we did not lose sight of long-term development plans. Now that the period of economic adaptation to the new conditions is almost complete, these tasks are becoming key," Putin said.

By contrast, stories about political instability and a possible banking crisis in Italy are worrying investors. Italian banks are struggling under the weight of 356 billion euros of non-performing loans – a third of the Eurozone's total – and the Italian government is under pressure from the European Central Bank to enforce a clean-up of their balance sheets.

In December the Italian government announced the creation of a 20 billion euro ($21 billion) fund to help distressed banks. However, a third of that sum is earmarked to rescue just one lender, Monte dei Paschi di Siena.

Atlante bank rescue fund was set up in April to help Italy's struggling banking sector, the fourth largest in the Eurozone, by buying bad loans. In addition to funding from state-owned entities, it raised 4.25 billion euros from banks and insurers.

However, last month UniCredit bank wrote down the value of its 700 million euro ($756 million) investment in Atlante, indicating it doesn't believe it will make profit on the investment. The move led to speculation that other banks will follow suit.