The Russian ruble suffered significant losses on Wednesday after a Russian news outlet, Kommersant, released full details of a U.S. bill seeking a new set of very severe sanctions on Russia for election meddling.
The new bill aims to impose sanctions on Russian sovereign debt, as well as blocking dollar-based transactions of Russia’s largest banks. Sberbank, VTB Bank, Gazprombank, Bank of Moscow, among others, are named in the bipartisan bill.
At press time, the ruble is down close to 2.5% against the U.S. dollar on the day, trading at a 4-month low of 65.13 rubles per dollar:
While the bill has plenty of biting provisions within it, the Russian economy/government will not feel any of its effects until the House is able to vote in September.
Senior economist & strategist at Danske Bank, Vladimir Miklashevsky, said on Twitter that the ruble will incur significant losses if the bill becomes law.
Ruble photo credit: 1
