Exporters in Russia hoard rubles after Putin asked their support.

OAO GMK Norilsk Nickel, the largest mining company and steel producers PAO Severstal, are some of the largest Russian exporters converted their dollar reserves in EUR and in local currency. The aim is to stabilize the ruble after its decline by 47% last year.

The central bank said that carefully monitor all foreign exchange transactions of the companies, although it is not the objective of the transactions. "Serious work was important exporters in December and early January, when the foreign exchange market was narrow and high volatility," said the press service of the bank. "Now the market is recovering and is not as dependent on the revenues and sales of exporters' they added.

During this month the Russian currency rose 12% against the US dollar.

After Putin asked for help from the big investors started buying some of the ruble, as Norilsk, for example, turned 483 mln. USD in rubles (about 30 billion.) And PAO Severstal pre-volatated 1.9 billion dollars in rubles.

To support the Government, the largest Russian oil producer Rosneft turned currency worth 93 billion dollars of revenue last year, according to them it is "the most significant contribution to strengthening the national currency, after experiencing a speculative attack"

Bloomberg