The Russian rouble reached record low on Monday against the dollar after U.S. and its allies on Saturday vowed to remove major Russian banks from the SWIFT interbank messaging network, effectively cutting them off from the global financial network.
The dollar/rouble rate was up 41.50% at a record 119.00 per dollar, in Asian trading. So far this month, the dollar is up 53.77% versus rouble.
Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his military command to put nuclear-armed forces on high alert on Sunday, in response to Western reprisals for his war on Ukraine – the biggest assault on a European state since World War Two.
Russia’s central bank announced a slew of measures on Sunday to support domestic markets, as it scrambled to manage the fallout of the sanctions that will block some banks from the SWIFT international payments system.
The central bank said it would resume buying gold on the domestic market, launch a repurchase auction with no limits and ease restrictions on banks’ open foreign currency positions.
The currency had found some support last week from the first Russian central bank currency interventions since 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine.