I’ve not paid a lot of attention to the rouble lately, but suddenly up pops a headline on Reuters saying that the Russian finance minister is saying there is no reason the devalue the rouble. This set the old antenna twitching, for as an old college once told me, “never believe anything from the Kremlin until it is officially denied”.
Should a rouble devaluation hit the markets, it would be bad news for the euro as Russia firms tend to have more EUR-denominated debt than dollar debt. Devalued currencies make it very difficult to pay back foreign-denominated loans.