The expert explained the reasons for the decline of the foreign exchange market in Russia

The foreign exchange market in Russia today means less and less. This was stated by Peter Grishin, Head of the Department of Macroeconomic Analysis and Debt Markets at Euler Analytical Technologies.

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"Previously, companies were given trade credits and they could pay after receiving the goods. It's all in the past now. It doesn't matter how you pay.: in the old way, directly or through payment agents, money is always in advance. You need to pay first, and only then will the product arrive. It follows from this that the connection between foreign trade and the exchange rate has become completely illusory. Now a deal, even not on sanctioned goods, takes many months — I have to buy foreign currency in October so that something comes to me in March," Grishin said.

According to him, there used to be a clear market in Russia: an export ruble meant a ruble of the currency sold, an import ruble meant the currency bought.

"But where sales agents work, foreign trade activity is in fact barter, which makes the work of the foreign exchange market meaningless, while the exchange rate is set in a circle of transactions ten times less than the one that needs to be taken into account. According to our estimates, a third of imports now come for money, and the rest goes through sales agents," the analyst said during the Expert RA webinar.

During over-the-counter trading on October 15, 2025, the dollar exchange rate dropped below 77 rubles, which was the lowest since the spring of 2023. In recent months, the dollar has been quoted low against the ruble, not exceeding the mark of 90 rubles.

For a more detailed assessment of the state of the Russian foreign exchange market, see the Izvestia article.

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