Russia’s central bank announced today that it is convening an emergency meeting on the key interest rateamid the fall of the ruble to its lowest level against the euro and the dollar since March 2022, just after the Russian attack on Ukraine.

“On Tuesday, August 15, a meeting of the Board of Governors of the Bank of Russia will be held to consider the issue of the level of key interest rates,” said the Bank of Russia’s press release.

The ruble fell beyond the psychological level of 100 per dollar for the first time since March last yearas Russia’s war in Ukraine drags on and international sanctions strangle the economy, according to Bloomberg.

The currency fell 1.5 percent to 100.975 even as Russia’s central bank tried to stem the slide by halting foreign exchange purchases in the domestic market for the rest of 2023. It has weakened 26% this year for the third time – the worst performance in emerging markets.

As the ruble fell, Putin’s economic adviser Maxim Oreshkin said in an op-ed for the TASS news agency that the Kremlin wanted a strong ruble and expected a normalization soon, an intervention that could push the central bank into action before its next scheduled interest.

“The main source of the weakening of the ruble and the acceleration of inflation is the soft monetary policy,” Oreshkin wrote. “The central bank has all the tools at its disposal to normalize the situation in the near future and ensure that lending rates are reduced to sustainable levels. A weak ruble complicates the structural transformation of the economy and negatively affects the real incomes of the population,” he said. “It is in the interest of the Russian economy to have a strong ruble.”

The Bank of Russia, which raised interest rates by 100 basis points in July to 8.5%, attributed the ruble’s sharp slide this year to a narrowing of Russia’s current account surplus – down 85% year-on-year. On Monday, the bank said it saw no financial stability risks from the ruble’s weakening, signaling a rate hike is likely soon.

Before the war, the ruble traded around 75 to the dollar