The Russian currency has been highly volatile during Moscow's nearly three-year military offensive against Ukraine, reacting dramatically to battlefield events and Western sanctions.
The central bank set its official exchange rate for the ruble at 102.58 against the US dollar, data published on its website showed, the lowest level since March 24, 2022, a month after the conflict began.
The latest drop came hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow had fired a new-generation hypersonic missile against Ukraine.
The Kremlin leader hinted that the new missile could carry nuclear weapons and said Moscow sees the United States and its European allies as legitimate targets.
Threatening "decisive" retaliation for any further escalation, Putin said the Ukrainian conflict had acquired "elements of a global nature."
Analysts said the currency had been hit hard by the United States on November 21, which announced sanctions against Russian lender Gazprombank, widely used to process Moscow's international energy payments.
"There is a significant risk that the ruble's weakening will continue," said Yevgeny Kogan, a professor at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow.
Sanctioned Russian banks cannot carry out transactions that affect the U.S. financial system in any way.
Access to the U.S. is so important that even non-Western banks and companies usually automatically stop transactions with sanctioned entities.
"Eventually, new international payment chains will be built, but until that process is complete, export revenues may temporarily decline. So the ruble is likely to depreciate in the coming months," Kogan added in Telegram.
Before it launched its full-scale offensive against Ukraine, the Russian currency was trading at around 75-80 against the US dollar.
The official rate, set by the central bank and based on trade data, fell to a record low of 120 in March 2022 before starting to recover.
Russia's ability to shift its key oil and gas exports away from Europe provided support for the ruble throughout the conflict. | BGNES
