Alex Christoforou and Alexander Mercouris (happens to be nephew of Melina Mercouri) have a detailed discussion on this, I recommend starting at 3′22″:
> We said it right back in February, that it was economic “shock and awe” [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shock_and_awe], financial “shock and awe”, you sieze the assets of the Central Bank (at least half of them), you sanction the Central Bank so that they can’t operate with contacts with other Central Banks.
> The expectation was, and this is indisputable, because the briefing notes are all there, they’re still up there on the White House website, that that would mean that the Central Bank would not be able to support the Ruble, the Ruble would then go into freefall, that was what was said, Biden subsequently talked about it, you know, the Ruble becoming rubble, 200 Rubles to the Dollar, all that sort of thing, and of course it did not turn out that way at all.
> And the reason it did not turn out that way at all, is because Nabiullina [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvira_Nabiullina] did her job as governor of the Central Bank, and prevented it from happening.
> She raised interest rates, I know this is controversial with some people, but I think as an emergency reaction that was absolutely the correct thing to do, she provided the necessary liquidity to the financial system, she made sure that the financial system was operating properly, and she held it all together. And she proved herself to be, this year, an extremely effective financial crisis manager.
> So we have a very stable situation with the Ruble. In fact, the problem with the Ruble at the moment is that the Ruble shows signs of appreciating too quickly. There is a massive amount of cash, of foreign currency swishing around the Russian economy, as Euros and Dollars pour into Russia from Russian energy sales.
> The Russians are prevented now from importing many goods, and of course they are afraid to take this money out and put it in foreign accounts because if they do, it could easily be stolen. So all of this money is piling up in Russia, and there are comments, some members of the government are saying, you know, we should convert it all into Rubles, others are saying, if we convert it all into Rubles that would make the Ruble too strong, it could go to 50, 60 Rubles to the Dollar, and that would not be good for the underlaying competitiveness of our economy.
> [...] and of course the other problem she has is that because of the massive, orchestrated pull-out of Western companies from Russia there are now gaps appearing in the Russian consumer market, there are problems in supply chains for Russian companies, and that is causing a fall in production. And that in turn, is leading into higher inflation within Russia itself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgTcha5-Pj0&t=202s
Alternative: https://rumble.com/v11paoj-nabiullina-and-putin-discuss-the-...