Russian ruble surges after the Russian authorities ordered 43 companies to prop up the slumping currency by selling some of their foreign cash

Interfax reports that the Russian authorities announced on Wednesday evening that they are introducing mandatory sales of foreign currency earnings on the domestic market for the country's largest exporters for a period of six months in order to stabilize the ruble's exchange rate.

President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree on "implementation of mandatory sales of foreign currency revenues earned by certain Russian exporters on foreign trade agreements (contracts)."

The decree reportedly approves a list of companies that will be subject to mandatory repatriation and sale of forex earnings.

"In accordance with the decree, a list of such exporters is being approved. They will have to start depositing earned foreign currency in their accounts at authorized banks as of the date set by the Russian government and carry out mandatory sales of this foreign currency on the domestic market," the Kremlin spokesman Peskov was quoted as saying. 

The "percentage of forex that will be subject to mandatory sale will be determined by the Russian government," said he.  “The mandatory forex sales will be monitored by the Federal Financial Monitoring Service.  In accordance with the decree and in order to implement it, this federal service will appoint authorized representatives at those very Russian exporters. The decree spells out in detail the powers of the representatives who will be appointed to the companies.”

According to Interfax, the government has been ordered to approve acts needed to implement the decree within seven days and to notify Russian exporters about their inclusion in the list.

The government press service said the amounts and deadlines for mandatory forex sales will be set by a separate cabinet order within a day.

The decree also requires certain companies to provide indicative schedules for forex purchases and sales on the domestic market to the Central Bank and Financial Monitoring Service.  Authorized representatives of the latter will be installed at certain companies to monitor and ensure compliance with currency regulations, the press service said.

The list includes 43 groups of companies in the "fuel and energy sector, ferrous and nonferrous metallurgy, chemical and forestry industries and the grain business," the government press service said.

The Central Bank of the Russian Federation today set the exchange rate of US dollar against the Russia ruble at 1:96.9948 without assuming any liability to buy or sell foreign currency at this rate.  On October 12, the exchange rate of the US dollar against the Russian ruble was 1:100.2004. 

In Tajikistan, the official exchange rate of the Russian ruble against the Tajik national currency, the somoni, has also risen: from 1:0.1098 on October 12 to 1:0.1131 on October 13.