The government has issued a resolution exempting Russian exporters from the obligation to sell their foreign currency earnings.
Mandatory quotas for the sale of foreign currency proceeds have been set to zero. Since October 2023, major enterprises and corporations in the energy, metallurgy, chemical, and agricultural sectors had been required to repatriate 40% of their foreign currency earnings to domestic bank accounts and sell 90% of that amount on the domestic market — effectively amounting to 36% of their total revenue. A “ruble shortage” in the domestic market, triggered by the high key interest rate, along with the need to fund current operations, depreciation costs, and investment programs, had been driving higher currency sales.
Starting in April 2025, the 29 largest Russian exporting companies had been selling 100% of their foreign currency proceeds, with sales volumes reaching $7.3 billion in May and $7.5 billion in June. On an annualized basis, this equated to roughly 8 trillion rubles, which significantly strengthened the national currency, lowered import prices, and shaved 2–3 percentage points off the current inflation rate.
The government’s decision to lift restrictions on foreign currency sales, based on the current financial and economic environment, clearly pursues two main objectives.
First, it allows exporters to independently structure their operations in foreign markets with the aim of maximizing profits, including through ruble-denominated transactions. This will enable systemically important companies to build up ruble-denominated assets, helping to offset the real-sector damage caused by the Central Bank’s tight monetary policy.
Second, it will substantially reduce the federal budget’s need to support corporate financial stability, particularly in light of higher interest expenses on servicing bank loans.
The combination of these factors is expected to prevent a sharp depreciation of the ruble, maintaining a balance between export and import revenues. Mandatory reporting to regulatory bodies — primarily the Federal Financial Monitoring Service (Rosfinmonitoring) — remains in place to prevent potential abuses and the unauthorized transfer of funds to offshore accounts or private holdings. This will ensure flexibility and allow for swift adjustments to currency sale rules if necessary.
