The Russian ruble has never been weaker, and President Vladimir Putin is taking new measures to address the situation.
The currency has seen a significant decline in recent months, impacted by rising inflation and the vast sums of money Putin is spending on the war.
In fact, the ruble has fallen more than 30% compared to the dollar over the past year.
"The fall is brutal. The Russian ruble has never been weaker," says Harald Magnus Andreassen, Chief Economist at Sparebank 1 Markets, speaking to the Norwegian media outlet Boersen.
Crisis tools in action
Given the critical situation and the massive decline, Putin is resorting to a specific tool he has used before during wartime.
The Russian government announced on Wednesday that 43 of Russia's largest exporters are now required to convert their earnings from foreign currency to rubles.
This move aims to avoid the risk of currency speculation and to achieve maximum transparency.
The last time Russia used this measure was when they had just invaded Ukraine at the beginning of 2022. At that time, Russian exporters were forced to convert their earnings to rubles within 90 days to avoid penalties and being denied state subsidies.
