The ruble is trading at its strongest level in about a month. That's after President Vladimir Putin's shock announcement to require what he calls unfriendly countries to pay for natural gas using the Russian currency. Moscow had released a list of those unfriendly states this month, and it includes the US, European nations, and their Asian allies. Natural gas is used to heat homes and power factories, and Europe gets 40% of its needs from Russia. The Kremlin's move is meant to counter painful economic sanctions imposed on Moscow by the EU and US.

For more, Equiti Capital market analyst, David Madden joined us from London.

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