Russian Senator Anatoly Artamonov, a member of the United Russia party led by President Vladimir Putin, also found a positive moment in the ruble’s devaluation, suggesting that the Russian government take advantage of the situation, Lenta reports.

Russian Senator Anatoly ArtamonovPhoto: Kommersant photo agency / ddp USA / Profimedia

He proposed forcing banks to “share” the profits they make from exchange rate differences, saying they have made at least half a trillion rubles from recent fluctuations in Russia’s national currency.

Artamonov, who heads the budget committee of the Federation Council, the upper house of the Russian parliament, stressed in an interview with RIA Novosti on Tuesday afternoon that similar practices exist “in many countries” because these achievements can be assimilated by “results”. [financiare] extraordinary”.

His comments came after Russia’s national currency broke above 100 rubles to the dollar again on Tuesday morning, before recovering slightly and falling below that psychological threshold.

A day ago, the dollar rate exceeded 99 rubles for the first time since August 15 this year, the very day that the Central Bank of Moscow raised the base interest rate by 350 basis points to 12%, an emergency measure to try to stop the collapse of the national currency of Russia against the US dollar.

Other Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, whose party Artamonov is also a member of, do not accept the depreciation of the national currency.

The devaluation of the ruble again causes concern in the Kremlin

Speaking at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok in September, Putin tried to calm concerns about the ruble’s weakness.

“In general, I don’t think there are any insurmountable problems or difficulties here,” he said then.

In fact, Russia’s central bank raised its benchmark interest rate in mid-August, a day after coming under uncharacteristic criticism from the Kremlin on the matter.

Herman Gref, chief executive of Russia’s largest bank, said in an interview shortly after Putin’s comments at the Vladivostok Economic Forum that the ruble was “unreasonably” weak against the dollar because of measures taken by the central bank to correct the situation.

“The ruble exchange rate is unreasonably weak,” Gref said in an interview with the Rossiya 1 TV channel, adding that the exchange rate should be 80-85 rubles per dollar.

He stated that this assessment of the “correct” exchange rate is based on a “detailed analysis of the fundamental value” of the ruble.