In the last twenty-four hours, a series of coordinated developments saw Russia’s ruble and its stock market move into healthier territory. Putin had explained yesterday in a televised government meeting, “During the last few weeks, as you know, several Western countries adopted unlawful decisions to freeze Russian assets. The West has de facto destroyed the credibility of its currencies.” He reasoned that it made no sense to employ “compromised” currencies. Then he declared that “unfriendly” countries would have to pay for their purchases from Russia – notably including natural gas — in rubles.
Following that, yesterday afternoon the ruble surged to a 3-week high of 95 rubles per dollar, before settling down a bit, and also gained 3.5% against the euro, at 110.5 rubles per euro. This morning it was still gaining against both the dollar and the euro.
Also this morning, the Moscow Exchange (MOEX) reopened in a designed fashion, for limited trading. Despite having suspended most of its transactions back on February 28, it opened moving strongly upward. The ruble-based MOEX benchmark went up more than 11% to 2,743 points. It resumed trading in 33 of the 50 Russian equities, including shares of Gazprom, Sberbank, Aeroflot, and other domestic firms. The oil majors Rosneft and Lukoil were up by 20% and 16%, respectively. Rusal, the aluminum company, was up more than 14%, and Norilsk Nickel more than 22%.