One of Russia’s most famous TV presenters and propagandists, Volodymyr Solovyov, threw a tantrum on one of his shows after the ruble depreciated again, reaching almost 100 to 1 to the dollar.

“The damned Central Bank, which scared the whole country, does not even explain to us, hell, the ruble rate has jumped so high that all countries are now laughing at our ruble for being one of the 3 weakest currencies in the world,” he said. — thundered during one of his monologues.

“Thanks to the ‘genius’ policy of the Central Bank, which despises people so much that it doesn’t tell them a word about what it’s doing!” he added.

His comments appeared to be a direct reference to a Bloomberg article on Wednesday that said the ruble had depreciated about 24% since the start of the year, “making it one of the three weakest emerging market currencies, along with the Turkish lira.” and the Argentine peso.”

Russians needed 98 rubles to buy a dollar on Wednesday, an exchange rate not seen since the first month of Vladimir Putin’s invasion last year, when it fell to an all-time low.

The situation now is radically different from the months after the start of the “special military operation”, the ruble became the currency with the strongest return in the world in May 2022 after Putin’s ultimatum to pay for Russian energy exports in May 2022. rubles and other measures taken by Moscow to strengthen the national currency.

The Central Bank of Russia is taking measures to stop the fall of the ruble

Moscow’s central bank said on Wednesday it would stop buying foreign currency on the domestic market until the end of this year in an effort to help the ruble recover after it hit its lowest exchange rate in 16 months.

“The decision was made to reduce the volatility of financial markets,” the bank’s press release also states.

Analysts believe the fall in the ruble is a result of Western sanctions, but some also suspect a deliberate policy by the central bank in Moscow, given that Russia exported record volumes of oil to India and China after the closure of Western markets.

Currency weakening is one of the tools that the country’s government has at its disposal to stimulate exports.

Despite Solovyov’s comments, Elvira Nabiullina, head of the Central Bank of Russia, is considered an authoritative economist.

In 1998, she became CEO of Sberbank, Russia’s largest private bank, aged just 35, and has held various senior positions in the Russian government since 2000, when Vladimir Putin came to power.

Nabiullina is believed to be one of the few Russian officials fully trusted by Vladimir Putin, who appointed her in 2013 as head of Russia’s central bank after two years as an economic adviser.

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