Russia's central bank

The Russian ruble has experienced a significant decline, reaching its lowest value against the U.S. dollar since the early days of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. As of this week, the ruble fell to 110 per dollar, marking its worst performance since March 2022.

Russia's central bank yesterday raised its key interest rate by 3.5 percent, a move designed to fight inflation and strengthen the ruble after the country's currency reached its lowest value since early in the war with Ukraine.

The decision was announced after an emergency meeting of the bank's board of directors was called a day earlier as the ruble declined.

Belarus and Russia have no plans to adopt a joint currency in the near future, Belarus' strongman leader has announced.

Speaking at a meeting with the head of Russia's central bank, Alexander Lukashenko said that introducing the Russian ruble in Belarus would not be "an easy process," and that the authorities in Minsk had no intentions so far of doing so.

The meeting will discuss the conflict in Ukraine and potential options for helping that country, said the President of the World Bank, David Malpass.

The European Union has taken the unprecedented step of allowing arms shipments to Ukraine following Russia's invasion.

At a press conference, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the move marked a "turning point" in EU history.

Another difficult night around the Russia-Ukraine conflict. A series of international reactions and new sanctions mark the fourth night of shelling.

Sanctions

The United States on April 15 imposed a broad array of sanctions on Russia, including curbs to its sovereign debt market, to punish it for interfering in last year's U.S. election, cyber hacking, bullying Ukraine and other alleged malign actions.

Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) are discussing the possibility of establishing a separate gold trading system, according to the First Deputy Chairman of Russia's Central Bank Sergey Shvetsov.

Some Russian financial organizations have suffered cyber attacks by malware called "BadRabbit" but have not been compromised, Russia's central bank said on Wednesday, quoted by Reuters. 

The central bank said it would analyze why the public server of the Interfax news agency with public company disclosure statements had been temporarily blocked on Tuesday.

The first deputy governor of Russia's central bank, Sergei Shvetsov, has said that his institution will support efforts to block access to external websites selling cryptocurrencies in the country.