What is happening to the ruble?

The ruble exchange rate continues to fall.

As of 10:30 MSK, the dollar reached the the level of 84.66 rubles on the Moscow Stock Exchange, gaining 3.26 rubles.

In turn, the euro rose to 92.46 rubles, increasing by 3.81 rubles.

Thus, even the respective peak figures of 82.47 and 90.1 rubles, reached on the previous evening, after which the ruble somewhat won back its decline, were surpassed.

In an interview with a correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza, professor of the department of the stock market and investments of the Higher School of Economics, Alexander Abramov, admitted that what is happening seems to him "a little bit surprising, because the ruble dropped more than oil during these two days."

"In my opinion, this may be due to the fact that people are afraid of the emergence of Iranian oil on the market, which, in their opinion, could lead to a further drop in oil prices. Apparently, this is partly because of consideration of these expectations. The second factor, I think, is the developments observed in the field of portfolio investments in Russia, because we see that the RTS index is dropping faster than oil, and even faster than the ruble. Apparently, this is due to the fact that, at the beginning of the year, part of the portfolio money, out of concern for the Russian prospects, were brought out of Russia. This is the second factor that boosted demand for the dollar in Russia for foreign players who still remain here," he suggested.

In his turn, a researcher at the Center for Study of Structural Studies of the Institute of Applied Economic Researches of RANHiGS, Mikhail Khromov, assumed that such a rapid depreciation of the ruble happens "mostly because of expectations, uncertainty, because there are no fundamental factors in particular."

"The price of oil has not changed much, there were no new economic forecasts, no new information. The ruble exchange rate is probably weakened on the expectation of a further drop in oil prices due to the removal of sanctions from Iran and negative trends in global financial markets," he thinks.