The 67 percent decline in Russian equities this year resembles the U.S. stock market crash of 1929 because of the damaging effect of highly leveraged investors, the head of Russia's Micex Stock Exchange said.

Russian stocks have suffered three days of declines greater than 14 percent in the last month, spurred in part by leveraged investors reducing their holdings after margin calls from their brokers. Speculators making bets with borrowed money also contributed to the 1929 stock-market crash in the U.S.