Russian ruble against the U.S. dollar. A 6.5 percentage point interest rate rise to 17 percent failed to prevent the currency hitting record lows in a "perfect storm" of low oil prices, looming recession and Western sanctions over the Ukraine crisis. Russian ruble The Russian ruble or rouble ( "rublʹ", plural: "rubli"; sign: ₽, руб; code: RUB) is the currency of the Russian Federation, the two partially recognised republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia and the two unrecognised republics of Donetsk and Luhansk. The ruble is subdivided into 100 "kopeks" (sometimes written as "kopecks" or "copecks"; "kopeyka", plural: "kopeyki"). The ruble was
Russian icons attesting to the age of the icon. While Russian law regarding the exportation of icons is quite clear, examples of Russian icons over 100 years of age are regularly introduced into the open market by way of smuggling into the neighboring Baltic countries, or as a result of corrupt Ministry of Culture officials who are willing to certify an otherwise unexportable icon as being "100 years old" in order to facilitate its transfer. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, many Russian icons have been repatriated via direct purchase by Russian museums, private Russian collectors, or as was the case