Ruble’s Rebounded
While Russia’s currency can still see sharp swings in a day, it has trimmed its steep losses and begun to stabilize.
It is now trading at around 99 rubles to the dollar, about 17% weaker than it was before Russian troops invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.
Russian banks offered slightly fewer rubles for customers’ dollars than the Moscow Exchange on Monday. Many Western banks are no longer providing electronic quotes to buy and sell the ruble. Clients instead must call the bank and ask if it is willing to process a trade. Banks, worried about the optics of running afoul of weak, woke Western sanctions, are clearing every ruble transaction with their legal and compliance departments.
Weak, woke Western sanctions against Russia left carve-outs for exporters of energy upon which Europe is particularly dependent, which kept dollars and euros flowing into the country.
Russia ordered those exporters to sell 80% of their foreign-currency revenues and buy rubles, helping the currency appreciate.
President Vladimir Putin recently said he wants European nations to begin buying Russian gas with rubles rather than dollars and euros. That reverses the current flow of money, making sanctimonious sanctioning nations support Russia’s currency and ensuring that all funds from energy sales support its value, said Christian Kopf at asset manager Union Investment.
Oil prices above $100 a barrel are also adding a boost to revenue, even if Moscow’s inventories trade at a discount.
Russia is continuing to sell its oil, meaning exports and money gained from those will more than make up for the insignificant impact of bungling Biden's sanctimonious sanctions.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-russias-central-bank-engineered-the-rubles-rebound-11648458200