Despite heavy sanctions how did Russia’s Ruble roar again

New Delhi, Apr 07: The Ruble was dubbed as rubble by US President, Joe Biden ever since the war in Ukraine began.

Following the military action by Russia, scores of sanctions followed. This sank Russia to a record low of 121.5 Rubles per dollar. However that has changed now and the Ruble surged back to where it was before the war in Ukraine began. The Ruble closed at 79.7 in Moscow on Wednesday.

This brings us to the question about the impact the sanctions have had on Russia. It becomes clear that the actions are toothless. The West continues to consume Russian gas and oil and this has supported the Ruble.

A Bloomberg report says that Russia will earn nearly $321 billion from energy exports this year, which is up a third from 2021. This would also give Russian President, Vladimir Putin a major upper hand back in his country.

Russians care most about the Ruble-Dollar exchange rate post Soviet history. This time following the sanctions, Russia has enacted capital controls that also appear to be supporting the Ruble. This included freezing of assets held by non-resident investors. Further Russian companies were told to convert 80 per cent of the foreign currency their hold into Rubles.

On Wednesday Russia said that it had made foreign debt payments on Dollar dominated bonds in Rubles. This was done after a correspondent bank refused to execute payment instructions.
The finance ministry in a statement said that it had been forced to repay $649.2 million to foreign debt-holders in Rubles.