The ruble rose above 89 to the dollar on Friday for the first time in more than 15 months on fears of domestic political risks following Prigozhin’s failed armed uprising last weekend and a lack of support, Reuters reported.

At 11:56 GMT (14:56 Romania), the ruble weakened 1.8% against the dollar to 89.15 units per dollar, after earlier hitting a post-March 29, 2022 low of 89.3275 points.

It also lost 1.8% against the euro to 96.74 units per euro, also a 15-month low.

“The ruble continues to collapse,” financial company Alor Broker told investors.

“Yesterday, it lost another 1.4% of its value, despite the stabilization of oil. The threshold of 90 for the dollar-ruble pair is approaching and may be reached,” the quoted source added.

Capital controls imposed by Moscow have helped shield the ruble from geopolitical fallout in the 16 months since Russia invaded Ukraine, but Yevgeny Prigozhin’s botched trip to Moscow at the weekend rattled markets and cast doubt on President Vladimir Putin’s control.

The ruble lost key support on Wednesday as the month-end tax period passed, when exporters typically convert their foreign currency earnings into rubles to meet local obligations.

The deputy head of the Bank of Russia, Oleksiy Zabotkin, said that the decrease in export revenues and the balance of payments caused the weakening of the ruble, which, according to him, does not pose a risk to financial stability.

“But certainly the dynamics of the exchange rate will be taken into account at the next meeting of the Council on key interest rates to find out the impact … on the dynamics of inflation this year,” Zabotkina was quoted as saying on Friday. reports the news agency “Interfax News”.