Russian ruble briefly reaches 15-month low after Wagner rebellion
By Krystal Hur, CNN
New York (CNN) — Russia’s currency hit its lowest level in nearly 15 months on Monday after Wagner mercenaries led a short-lived rebellion against the Kremlin over the weekend.
The ruble briefly traded at around 87 per US dollar before paring back some of its losses, last trading at around 84.40 against the greenback.
The insurrection triggered volatility across markets: Oil prices rose. Brent crude, the international benchmark, gained 0.8% to roughly $74 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate, the US benchmark, rose by 0.4% to around $69 a barrel.
Monday’s drop came after Russians scrambled to swap their cash for dollars over the weekend, when Russian banks were asking way above the official rate of 90 rubles for each greenback, Reuters reported.
The ruble stayed surprisingly resilient for most of last year, buoyed by the Russian central bank’s aggressive interest rate hikes and capital controls.
Russia has also moved to decrease its reliance on the US dollar, including switching payments to the ruble, particularly after it was hit with Western sanctions for its invasion of Ukraine. That has injected volatility into the ruble-dollar relationship.
But the ruble has seesawed even before then. It almost halved in value when Russia invaded Ukraine last February, trading at over 100 rubles against the dollar. While the ruble has recovered its losses since then, its relationship to the dollar has remained volatile and is down almost 25% so far this year.
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