Reasons for this are in the article: > To shield the assets from the impact of sweeping international sanctions, Russia has banned short selling in these share

Reasons for this are in the article: > To shield the assets from the impact of sweeping international sanctions, Russia has banned short selling in these shares, adding to an earlier restriction on foreigners exiting local equities. It has also said its wealth fund will step in and prop up the equity market with up to $10 billion when it reopens. > “Foreign investors are not able to sell their holdings and secondly, the welfare fund in Russia is also supposed to step in and stabilize the market. Those two things are limiting the downside at the moment,” > “With restrictions on foreign selling and repatriation this is not a functional market in terms of efficient price discovery, given foreigners dominate the market’s free float,” Also: "Only equities that have primary listings in Russia were active today, " And I'm assuming the stocks are priced in rubles which any upside is counteracted with drop in currency power. This is most likely going to allow Russians to sell off their assets before letting market fall or nationalizing.