The Russian government has done a couple of things to dramatically decrease the demand on the ruble -> hard currency conversion. If you own Russian bonds or st

The Russian government has done a couple of things to dramatically decrease the demand on the ruble -> hard currency conversion. If you own Russian bonds or stocks outside of Russia, you used to get paid in hard currency. You now get paid in rubles. So suddenly the government and major companies no longer need hard currencies. Individual citizens can no longer convert rubles to hard currency. So, a lot less demand. Meanwhile, the Russian government still has hard currency reserves and gas/oil they can use to buy rubles. Since someone still wants to buy rubles, and there isn't a group that needs/wants/is allowed to sell them, the price is going up.