I think it's that Russia is pegging the Ruble to a fixed value of gold and requiring all nations importing from Russia to use Rubles to buy their Russian export

I think it's that Russia is pegging the Ruble to a fixed value of gold and requiring all nations importing from Russia to use Rubles to buy their Russian exports. The only way to get Rubles to buy your imports is to give Russia gold at the rub-gold exchange rate set by Russia. This peg, iiuc, is one-way. As in, Russia gives you X rubles for Y gold. You can't, however, redeem your rubles the other way around. So... is the Ruble really strong? idk.. it all sounds very artificial given exchange is only in one direction.