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Among the harshest sanctions that have been imposed by America and its allies was the freeze on the foreign currency reserves held by the Russian central bank in a move aimed at stopping the country from using its stash of euros and dollars to buy rubles in order to boost their currency’s value.

However, Russia seems to be working around this sanction to some extent by requiring exporting companies to exchange 80 percent of hard currency revenue for rubles. This has created new demand for the currency amid Russia’s continuing gas and oil exports.

Big European buyers of Russian gas like France and Germany are being pressured by Russia to pay in rubles. If they comply, it could prop the currency up further; if they balk and Putin follows through on threats to cut them off, however, the sudden stop in payments will cause the ruble to take a significant hit.

Experts say that in addition to stopping purchasing and gas and oil, Western countries can increase the pressure by cutting more Russian banks from SWIFT and adopting full blocking sanctions on more Russian banks.

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