The Financial Times writes that Russia has managed to stabilize the ruble and prevent a financial collapse despite unprecedented sanctions pressure. At the same time, the publication believes that Moscow was able to do this artificially, with the help of “draconian” capital controls and a ban on sales of Russian assets by foreign investors. The Kremlin does not agree with this position.

Kate Bedingfield, the White House communications director, said the day before that the ruble strengthening is “artificial.” According to her, the ruble, supported by the efforts of the Central Bank and the government, no longer reflects the real situation in the Russian economy.

Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov disagreed with this statement.

“We do not agree with such words, it is possible to be oriented (on the ruble as an indicator of the state of the economy),” he told reporters.

Experts interviewed by the FT say that Moscow still managed to avoid the collapse of the financial system, but at the cost of increasing isolation from global financial markets. Oil and gas revenues also supported the ruble, but the restrictions imposed by the Central Bank played a decisive role.

“At the beginning of the special operation, there was a moment when the ruble fell sharply. When many citizens transferred their money abroad,” Oleg Vyugin, chairman of the Mosbirzh board and former deputy chairman of the Central Bank, told the publication. – But then there was an embargo on this, and it became almost impossible to use dollars either in the country or abroad”.

In addition, says the FT, the Central Bank banned foreigners from selling Russian assets, their investments were trapped. And the increase in the key rate to 20% prompted Russians to save their rubles instead of exchanging them for foreign currency.

“This measure prevented the collapse of banks and kept the Russian banking system intact,” the newspaper said.

Nevertheless, experts do not consider the strengthened ruble a real reflection of the Russian economy.

“Banks outside Russia have largely stopped calculating the dollar-ruble exchange rate,” one expert said. – Offshore, this market simply doesn’t exist.”

But the sanctions have at the same time strengthened one of the traditionally strong points of the Russian economy – the trade surplus. According to Vyugin, the sharp rise in energy prices, coupled with a sharp drop in imports, has created “a very strong trade balance and a huge surplus of currency in the trade balance.” As a result, Russia, according to one economist’s forecast, will be able to restore Central Bank reserves, which were frozen due to sanctions, in a little more than a year.