The ruble closed at the highest level in five years against the euro as more European companies appeared to be complying with Vladimir Putin’s demand that they switch to paying in Russia’s currency for natural gas.

The ruble jumped as much as 9% against the euro and ended Friday’s session 2.8% stronger against the dollar in Moscow. The Russian currency is the best performer globally this year.
Capital controls, collapsing imports and surging energy prices have left the ruble about 20% stronger than before the invasion of Ukraine almost three months ago. The central bank’s gradual easing of the restrictions on the market hasn’t been able to reverse the appreciation, which could become a problem for the budget as a large share of revenue comes in foreign currency.
On top of that, many foreign clients of Gazprom PJSC are complying with Putin’s demands by opening foreign-currency and ruble accounts with the gas giant’s lending arm, Gazprombank, to transfer funds for conversion.

“Pressure on the dollar and euro will increase as more buyers of gas open special accounts,” said George Vaschenko, head of Russian stock market operations department at Freedom Finance LLC. “There won’t be pressure every day -- and the currency could fall back into the range of 59-60 rubles -- but there will be fresh waves of strengthening for sure.”

Yuri Popov, an FX and rates strategist at Sberbank CIB, predicts that the ruble could reach 50 per dollar by the start of the third quarter.

Trading in the euro versus the ruble on the Moscow Exchange more than doubled in volume on Thursday compared with the previous day, according to Moscow Exchange data.
Under the new mechanism, importers of Russian pipeline gas must open two accounts at Gazprombank to handle payments for the fuel. Around half of Gazprom’s more than 50 foreign clients have already opened such accounts, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said earlier this week.
He didn’t specify the companies or countries complying with the new payment mechanism, saying only that some of Gazprom’s major clients have either paid for deliveries or are ready to pay on time, avoiding a supply cutoff.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-20/ruble-surges-to-7-year-high-as-gazprom-clients-heed-putin-on-gas
Last month Gazprom halted gas flows to Poland and Bulgaria for non-compliance with Putin’s decree. In Finland, flows on a main pipeline are set to stop in the early hours of Saturday after the country refused to pay in rubles.

“The exchange rate could potentially go even stronger,” said Evgeny Koshelev at Rosbank. “The overhang of hard currency liquidity can’t be absorbed by internal means -- banks are less and less interested since there’s no demand, the population doesn’t have any way of using it.”

Russia halt gas, oil and electricity supply to Lithuanian today.

Maybe it’s time Nigeria government need to declare war on Niger Rep, Togo, Benin Rep and Ghana then we can now demand Naira for all our oil and gas after EU and USA sanction us.

Africa leaders need to wake up, we need whosoever advised Putin on Russia demand for rubles.

Lord of War, putin

This shows that Africa is very rich and we can do the same and we will be out of undevelopment.

Master Putin

The king of kings,all of you western slaves will bow to the master strategists.
Russia is the definition of too big to fail

When you hear stories like this, the people to praise are the central bank governor, the minister of finance, all ministers in the economic team. It is all a matter of quality leadership, without these people, the Russian economy would be been in complete comatose considering all the sanctions from the ukrainian war. That is why I still feel it was a big insult for Emefiele, Ngige and many others to have even harbored the thoughts of becoming the president despite their obvious failures.

Tell me one reason you think Putin will want this war to end? This war will linger for the next 2yrs until Ruble topples the USD In value... US ntoor

This war is taking Russia to greater height.

Walahi at this rate ruble will soon be more valuable than dollar, putin be praying for more sanctions now

In this life who pass you pass you, no need to dey do yanga,how can you sanction someone and his currency is tripling it's value. This war might just be the best thing to happen to Russia in a very long time

Seun , lalasticlala,mynd44 you have a moral duty to put this news to fp ,do it

This is quite interesting,how is Russia doing this,what are they doing right,this must be weird for the west ,you sanction someone to punish them but they only got richer and more successful,the west probably regretting sanctioning them now

If only this will get to Front page

Svlla:
If only this will get to Front page

Not a chance, apparently the owner of the platform hates anything that doesn't allign with the west narrative

Lalasticlala, Seun, mynd 44 push this to FP

You have to give this to the Russians even if you're supporting Ukraine, it's impressive hoe they've managed to not only survive but thrive under this sanctions.
Seun, lalasticlala, mynd44 we need to see this on FP
At least Bloomberg Is an American source

shogsman:

Not a chance, apparently the owner of the platform hates anything that doesn't allign with the west narrative

He is western biased. It would do alot of good if he was neutral or at least pretend to be

Putin gat big balls

They all went to Moscow state University

Carloslehder:
Seun , lalasticlala,mynd44 you have a moral duty to put this news to fp ,do it

lol

shogsman:

Not a chance, apparently the owner of the platform hates anything that doesn't allign with the west narrative

.
He does not hate it it just that the west are the ones hosting his web site so if he too much condemn them they may pull his plug and render the website useless.

This is the type of power we fight for USA not to have absolute power currupts and it is a danger to other countries.

seunny4lif:
Russia halt gas, oil and electricity supply to Lithuanian today.

Maybe it’s time Nigeria government need to declare war on Niger Rep, Togo, Benin Rep and Ghana then we can now demand Naira for all our oil and gas after EU and USA sanction us.

Africa leaders need to wake up, we need whosoever advised Putin on Russia demand for rubles.

The ediots we have in Aso Rock don't even monitor what is happening in the international scene. All they care about is stealing and wasting of money. The countries you mentioned are owing Nigeria huge amount of money. Yet, they keep getting without payment. If Nigeria start demanding to be paid in Naira for oil and goods sold, especially with China, the Naira will appreciate sporadically and the inflation rate in this country would ease a bit. But alas, we have only cows and pigs in government. Very pathetic.

olas24u:
This shows that Africa is very rich and we can do the same and we will be out of undevelopment.

Unfortunately, our leaders are zombies.

Appleyard:
The ediots we have in Aso Rock don't even monitor what is happening in the international scene. All they care about is stealing and wasting of money. The countries you mentioned are owing Nigeria huge amount of money. Yet, they keep getting without payment. If Nigeria start demanding to be paid in Naira for oil and goods sold, especially with China, the Naira will appreciate sporadically and the inflation rate in this country would ease a bit. But alas, we have only cows and pigs in government. Very pathetic.

We don’t have leaders in Nigeria
We have useless looters and stealers

Appleyard:


Unfortunately, our leaders are zombies.

Puppets and all operating a gunpoint. They are smart and have access to state information. But they cannot try it. Gaddafi, Thomas Sankara, pratice lumumba, kwame nkrumah all failed.

Pierohandsome:
Tell me one reason you think Putin will want this war to end? This war will linger for the next 2yrs until Ruble topples the USD In value... US ntoor

Gaddamit! You can see through the thickest geopolitical mist . The US intelligence have said that Russia is preparing for a long-term war in Ukraine. Initially, the US-led west planned on prolonging the war in Ukraine in order to 'bleed' Russia militarily. But now, from their own observations, the odds favours Russia compared to the cost and gain for the west. This has alarmed them, hence for the second time in a month, the US had called Russia and asked for a ceasefire in Ukraine. One thing that is noteworthy is that it was the US side that initiated these calls, not the Russians. Now, common sense dictates that the US wouldn't have called if things were going according to their plans. They knew that at the end of the tunnel lies a negative outcome for Ukraine, the EU and the US. The only little gain they can takeaway from this brouhaha is the fact that Two New members --Sweden and Finland--will be joining NATO, which, by the way, is more or less of any major turning point as far as Moscow is concerned because, these two have over the years been close NATO allies with their military almost linked and synced together. Entering the alliance formally is just for formality.

But as much as the Ukraine is concerned, Russia have cornered the west and get them to ruin their own economy while exposing their double standards for everyone to see. I must admit, Vladimir Oghenedonado Putin is a goddamn strategist and master chess player.

Western zombies will say currency has nothing to do with economy.

But in the same breath they will point out that someone that is earning 50dollars in US is earning higher than someone earning 50roubles in Russia.

They claim sanction takes time to bite, but they were the ones parading this platform with screenshots when 130 rouble exchanged for a dollar.

Curse to Western slaves.

olas24u:
This shows that Africa is very rich and we can do the same and we will be out of undevelopment.

Ur Selfish and Brainless Leaders are the problem. They are only after their Belly.

Truvelisback:
Ur Selfish and Brainless Leaders are the problem. They are only after their Belly.

They are acting under duress, some of them are smart.