Russian rouble weakens against US dollar after fresh EU sanctions
As of 1245 GMT, the rouble was 0.8% lower at 78.70 per U.S. dollar, according to data compiled by LSEG, based on over-the-counter quotes. The rouble is up about 45% against the dollar since the start of the year.
The rouble, insulated from global financial flows by Russian currency controls and Western sanctions, remained strong despite a change in the attitude of U.S. President Donald Trump toward Russia in recent weeks.
Analysts said the new EU sanctions will have little impact. The rouble is receiving support from more foreign currency sales by the central bank.
"Sanctions will increase pressure on the Russian economy, but their effect may be limited. Russia will continue to reorient its exports towards Asia," Russian Agricultural Bank analysts said in a research note.
The EU will set a moving price cap on Russian crude at 15% below its average market price, but Russia has so far managed to sell most of its oil above the previous price cap as the current mechanism makes it unclear who must police its implementation.
The last time the rouble took a hit from Western sanctions was when the U.S. imposed sanctions on Gazprombank, which handled Russia's energy trade, in November 2024.
The rouble rallied against all major currencies early this year, in large part due to hopes for a U.S.-mediated peace deal with Ukraine, which have since evaporated.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Indian Express
5 minutes ago
- Indian Express
US to initially impose ‘small tariff' on pharma imports, Trump says
President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that the United States would initially place a 'small tariff' on pharmaceutical imports before hiking it to 150% within 18 months and eventually to 250% in an effort to boost domestic production. 'In one year, one and a half years maximum, it's going to go to 150% and then it's going to go to 250% because we want pharmaceuticals made in our country,' Trump told CNBC in an interview. He did not specify the initial tariff rate on pharmaceuticals. Trump said last month that pharmaceutical tariffs could reach as high as 200%. He said in February that sectoral tariffs on pharmaceuticals and semiconductor chips would start at '25% or higher,' rising substantially over the course of a year. Trump said on Tuesday that he plans to announce tariffs on semiconductors and chips in the 'next week or so,' but gave no further details. The United States has been conducting a national security review of the pharmaceutical sector, and the industry has been preparing for possible sector-specific tariffs. The administration has not announced when the results of that probe will be released. Several drugmakers have pledged multibillion-dollar investments in U.S. manufacturing as Trump threatens import tariffs, with AstraZeneca recently committing $50 billion to expand its American operations. PhRMA, the main lobbying group for the industry, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A framework agreement between the United States and the EU sets out that tariffs on pharmaceuticals and semiconductors are currently zero, but if the United States raises tariffs following its import investigation, they will be capped at 15%.
&w=3840&q=100)
Business Standard
5 minutes ago
- Business Standard
Putin doubts potency of Trump's ultimatum to end the war: Report
Russian President Vladimir Putin is unlikely to bow to a sanctions ultimatum expiring this Friday from U.S. President Donald Trump, and retains the goal of capturing four regions of Ukraine in their entirety, sources close to the Kremlin told Reuters. Trump has threatened to hit Russia with new sanctions and impose 100% tariffs on countries that buy its oil - of which the biggest are China and India - unless Putin agrees to a ceasefire in Russia's war in Ukraine. Putin's determination to keep going is prompted by his belief that Russia is winning and by scepticism that yet more U.S. sanctions will have much of an impact after successive waves of economic penalties during 3-1/2 years of war, according to three sources familiar with discussions in the Kremlin. The Russian leader does not want to anger Trump, and he realises that he may be spurning a chance to improve relations with Washington and the West, but his war goals take precedence, two of the sources said. Putin's goal is to fully capture the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, which Russia has claimed as its own, and then to talk about a peace agreement, one of the sources said. "If Putin were able to fully occupy those four regions which he has claimed for Russia he could claim that his war in Ukraine had reached his objectives," said James Rodgers, author of the forthcoming book "The Return of Russia". The current talks process, in which Russian and Ukrainian negotiators have met three times since May, was an attempt by Moscow to convince Trump that Putin was not rejecting peace, the first source said, adding that the talks were devoid of real substance apart from discussions on humanitarian exchanges. Russia says it is serious about agreeing a long-term peace in the negotiations but that the process is complicated because the two sides' stances are so far apart. Putin last week described the talks as positive. Moscow's stated demands include a full Ukrainian withdrawal from the four regions and acceptance by Kyiv of neutral status and limits on the size of its military' demands rejected by Ukraine. In a sign that there may yet be an opportunity to strike a deal before the deadline, Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff is expected to visit Russia this week, following an escalation in rhetoric between Trump and Moscow over risks of nuclear war. On Monday, Russia said it was no longer bound by a moratorium on short- and medium-range nuclear missiles. The Kremlin did not respond to a request for comment for this story. All the sources spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation. Trump, who in the past has praised Putin and held out the prospect of lucrative business deals between their two countries, has lately expressed growing impatience with the Russian president. He has complained about what he called Putin's "bullshit" and described Russia's relentless bombing of Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities as "disgusting". The Kremlin has said it noted Trump's statements but it has declined to respond to them. Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko last week called on the world to respond with "maximum pressure" after the worst Russian air strike of the year killed 31 people in Kyiv, including five children, in what she called Russia's response to Trump's deadline. "President Trump wants to stop the killing, which is why he is selling American-made weapons to NATO members and threatening Putin with biting tariffs and sanctions if he does not agree to a ceasefire," White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said in response to a request for comment. FORCES ADVANCE The first source said Putin was privately concerned about the recent deterioration of U.S. ties. Putin still retains the hope that Russia can again befriend America and trade with the West, and "he is worried" about Trump's irritation, this person said. But with Moscow's forces advancing on the battlefield and Ukraine under heavy military pressure, Putin does not believe now is the time to end the war, the source said, adding that neither the Russian people nor the army would understand if he stops now. Rodgers, the author, said Putin has invested his political reputation and legacy in the war in Ukraine. "We know from his previous writings and statements that he sees himself as part of a strong tradition of standing up to the West and the rest of world to defend Russia's interests," he said. The Kremlin leader values the relationship with Trump and does not want to anger him, however, "he simply has a top priority - Putin cannot afford to end the war just because Trump wants it," the second Russian source said. A third person familiar with Kremlin thinking also said Russia wanted to take all four regions and did not see the logic in stopping at a time of battlefield gains during Russia's summer offensive. Ukraine has suffered some of its biggest territorial losses of 2025 in the past three months, including 502 square kilometres in July, according to Black Bird Group, a Finland-based military analysis centre. In total, Russia has occupied around a fifth of Ukraine. Russia's military General Staff has told Putin that the Ukrainian front will crumble in two or three months, the first person said. However, Russia’s recent gains remain relatively minor in purely territorial terms, with only 5,000 square kilometres (1,930 square miles) of Ukraine taken since the start of last year, less than 1% of the country's overall territory, according to a June report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank. Ukrainian and Western military sources, acknowledge that Russia is making gains, but only gradually and with heavy casualties. Russian war bloggers say Moscow's forces have been bogged down during its current summer offensive in areas where the terrain and dense urban landscape favoured Ukraine, but assess that other areas should be faster to take. 'HE'S MADE THREATS BEFORE' Trump's sanctions threat was "painful and unpleasant," but not a catastrophe, the second source said. The third source said there was a feeling in Moscow that "there's not much more that they can do to us". It was also not clear if Trump would follow through on his ultimatum, this person said, adding that "he's made threats before" and then not acted, or changed his mind. The source also said it was hard to imagine that China would stop buying Russian oil on instructions from Trump, and that his actions risked backfiring by driving oil prices higher. As a consequence of previous rounds of sanctions, Russian oil and gas exporters have taken big hits to their revenues, and foreign direct investment in the country fell by 63% last year, according to U.N. trade data. Around $300 billion of central bank assets have been frozen in foreign jurisdictions. But Russia's ability to wage war has been unimpeded, thanks in part to ammunition supplies from North Korea and imports from China of dual-use components that have sustained a massive rise in weapons production. The Kremlin has repeatedly said that Russia has some "immunity" to sanctions. Trump has acknowledged Russia's skill in skirting the measures. "They're wily characters and they're pretty good at avoiding sanctions, so we'll see what happens," he told reporters at the weekend, when asked what his response would be if Russia did not agree to a ceasefire. The first Russian source noted that Putin, in pursuing the conflict, was turning his back on a U.S. offer made in March that Washington, in return for his agreement to a full ceasefire, would remove U.S. sanctions, recognise Russian possession of Crimea - annexed from Ukraine in 2014 - and acknowledge de facto Russian control of the territory captured by its forces since 2022. The source called the offer a "fantastic chance," but said stopping a war was much more difficult than starting it.
Time of India
34 minutes ago
- Time of India
Donald Trump says will announce new tariff plan for semiconductors and chips next week because: We want them to ...
Donald Trump US President Donald Trump announced that new tariffs on semiconductor and chip imports will be unveiled "within the next week or so," as his administration pursues an aggressive trade policy aimed at bringing manufacturing back to the United States. "We're going to be announcing on semiconductors and chips, which is a separate category, because we want them made in the United States," Trump said during an interview on CNBC's "Squawk Box." The president, however, did not provide specific details about tariff rates or implementation timelines. The announcement comes as the Commerce Department has been investigating the semiconductor market since April to lay the groundwork for possible tariffs on an industry expected to generate nearly $700 billion in global sales, according to Bloomberg. The vast majority of the world's most advanced semiconductors currently come from Taiwan, home to major chipmaker TSMC, whose customers include tech giants Apple, Nvidia, Qualcomm and AMD. Trump's recent policy shifts show selective approach The semiconductor tariff announcement follows Trump's recent decision in April to exclude smartphones, computers, and other electronics from higher tariffs, though other existing duties remain in place. US Customs and Border Protection updated its guidance to exempt various tech products from the 125% additional tariff on Chinese goods and the base 10% global tariff. Despite Trump's claims that "people love the tariffs," his approval rating has declined in multiple poll trackers' latest updates, per CNBC. Historical data, as quoted in the CNBC report, shows that the president's first-term trade war with China actually expanded China's trade surplus with the US between 2018 and 2021, according to industry reports. Trump had sharply criticized the Biden administration's $52 billion CHIPS Act subsidies as "ridiculous," arguing that tariff threats provide superior incentives for domestic manufacturing. "We will have more plants built in the next short period of time than ever before because the incentive will be there," Trump stated at a House GOP conference earlier this year in January, though he provided no specific timelines for these projected developments. AI Masterclass for Students. Upskill Young Ones Today!– Join Now
