Russian Rouble Is Now Worth Less than 1 Penny After Dropping to 16-Month Low

The Russian rouble isn’t worth one red cent.

The former superpower’s currency fell below 101 roubles to the dollar Monday as President Vladimir Putin’s top economic advisor blamed central bankers for the embarrassing tumble. 

The rouble has lost around a quarter of its value since Russian troops invaded Ukraine last year.

"The main source of rouble weakening and accelerating inflation is soft monetary policy," economist Maxim Oreshkin wrote for the TASS state news agency.

"The central bank has all the tools to normalize the situation in the near future and ensure that lending rates are reduced to sustainable levels."

The Bank of Russia hiked rates last month to 8.5% in a move to slow inflation, and blamed the plummeting rouble on an 85% decline in the country’s balance of payments surplus.

Russia is fenced in by Western sanctions and an international deal to limit the price buyers pay for its oil. 

The currency has had a volatile run since Putin sent troops over the border in a failed bid to dominate its southern neighbor. The rouble fell to a record low of 120 to the dollar in March 2022 before reaching a seven-year high just a few months later thanks to capital controls and bulging exports.

"The weaker rouble is a damning indictment of Russia’s war on Ukraine," Timothy Ash, a London-based senior sovereign strategist at BlueBay Asset Management, told Reuters. 

"It is being driven not only by lower energy receipts due to the loss of the bulk of the European gas business but also by the success of the G7 oil price cap, the much higher cost of imports due to sanctions and then continued capital flight."