Bank dealers say the Central Bank of Russia is unlikely to have been directly responsible for the weakening of the Russian currency. According to some analysts, the Central Bank was not buying dollars at the morning session.

Experts say the dollar’s rise could be linked to recent statements by government officials about the undesirability of the ruble's significant strengthening. So, Alexey Ulyukayev, Senior Deputy Finance Minister of Russia, told RBC TV that a 5-6 percent strengthening a year was “moderate and reasonable”. He stressed that this rise of the national currency was “not harmful but rather beneficial to the economy”. Mr. Ulyukayev made it clear that the ruble would be strengthening at approximately the same rate in the future. Given that the dollar has dropped by more than 3 percent against the ruble since the start of the year, it is easy to calculate that the maximum possible strengthening of the Russian currency could be 27.5 RUR/USD by the end of the year, according to Mr. Ulyukayev.

Meanwhile, the euro has recouped most of its Friday’s losses against the ruble. The weighted average exchange rate of the euro rose RUR 0.18 to 35.54 RUR/EUR at the Unified Trading Session on Monday. The highest price was 35.58 RUR/EUR. So, the euro has strengthened significantly against the ruble, for the first time since the middle of last week.

On January 29-30, the euro dropped against the ruble. The European currency fell RUR 0.25 on Friday last week. It seems that the euro’s official exchange rate will rise by approximately the same amount today.

The rise in the euro’s exchange rate against the ruble is connected with the weakening of the American currency against the euro on international markets. The euro is currently trading at $1.2460, having traded at $1.2400 a day earlier. So, the dollar has lost about 0.5 percent of its value against the euro.