This is CBS. I am the world. I'm John Bashar. The Russian rubble in question. I welcome

Michael Bernstom of the Hoover Institution, who's been my guide on the Russian economy

under sanctions since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine. Now it turns on the

rubble per dollar. When last we spoke of the rubble, it had momentarily gone through

a hundred. I think it topped it about one, two, or one, three to the dollar. And then

as Michael explained, the central bank entered into the marketplace and obliged the rubble

to retreat into the high 90s. That was the last episode, the adventure of the rubble.

Michael a very good evening to you. Where is the rubble now? And what are the plans for

the rubble? Given that if I understand correctly, the Russian central bank can hold it in

the low 90s, but not indefinitely. And that moves us to the question of capital outflow

controls. Good evening to you, Michael. Good evening to you. The rubble today is 94

rubles for one dollar. And every day is losing the production of the rubble. The central

bank can control it in that range because the central bank every day provides dollar

liquidity to banks in the purchase agreement repo, technically called operations. And every

day we see the reports that they let the banks borrow $4 billion, $5 billion, $10 billion,

the next day to get you on it. So this way they can manipulate. They can manipulate in a

very small range, their rubble dollar exchange rate. But as the government reports, there

are lots of attacks on the rubble from various traders because people sell short, people

are putting up for futures contracts on the dollar. So it's very difficult for the central

bank. It's a risk operation. But as long as they can provide an overnight dollar liquidity

to banks, they can control the exchange rate. They can control it indefinitely because

there's said to be a big dispute between the elite in Moscow about the rubble, wholly

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