In recent days the ruble has steadied at about 104 to the dollar, and government OFZ bonds have also stabilized “with the help of the central bank,” according to Reuters. “The central bank said last week it would begin buying OFZ bonds to limit volatility, after it held its key interest rate at 20% after an emergency rate hike in late February.”
No one knows for sure how much the Bank of Russia central bank, under the direction of international bankers’ favorite Elvira Nabiullina, is spending from its unfrozen dollar reserves to try to defend the value of the ruble and the OFZ bonds in the face of major international financial warfare, because Russia stopped publishing central bank reserve figures about three weeks ago. But Reuters quotes Maxim Biryukov, senior analyst at Alfa Capital, Russia’s largest privately owned investment group, saying: “Judging by the levels at which the ruble sovereign debt is trading, the central bank is playing a decisive role in the pricing.”
Burning through your foreign reserves to try to defend the rigged parity of your currency under conditions of all-out financial warfare within the floating-exchange-rate speculative system, may be just what international speculators want to see, but it is not a winning strategy for Russia.
