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The Russian rouble has weakened after Trump's Russia remarks

The Russian rouble fell against the U.S. Dollar on Monday, after U.S. president Donald Trump declared that he was "pissed" with Russian President Vladimir Putin. He also threatened to impose tariffs on buyers of Russian crude oil.

The rouble had fallen 0.7% to 85.50 USD on the OTC market by 0920 GMT. The Russian currency has gained about 25% this year against the US dollar, mainly due to expectations that geopolitical tensions will ease.

Trump said to NBC News that he had been very angry when Putin criticized the leadership of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. His comments show his frustration over the lack of progress on a ceasefire.

Denis Popov, a PSB bank representative, said: "The news background, at least, has stopped the formation of optimism in the market which limits the demand for rouble denominated assets."

Exporting companies also stopped buying roubles to pay their corporate taxes, as they had done last week.

Popov said that "after the exhaustion by fundamental factors which created a slight excess of foreign currency in the last week there is the risk that the value may move to a somewhat weaker level."

The rouble fell 0.2% on the Moscow Stock Exchange against the Chinese Yuan, which is the most commonly traded foreign currency in Russia. (Reporting and editing by Gareth Jones.)

(source: Reuters)