The ruble rose to a 7-year high against the dollar after the West said Russia had defaulted

Reuters The ruble hit a more than seven-year high on Tuesday as capital controls and month-end taxes offset the negative impact of Western statements that Russia had defaulted on its international bonds for the first time in more than a century.

The White House and Moody’s Credit Bureau said Russia had defaulted because sanctions effectively excluded the country from the global financial system.

But the Kremlin, which has the money to make payments from oil and gas revenues, dismissed the allegations and accused the West of artificially pushing it into default.

The ruble rose 0.9% against the dollar at 52.93 after hitting its strongest level since early June 2015 at 52.5750 in Moscow trading.

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The ruble rose 0.8% against the euro at 55.88, hovering around much stronger levels than it was before Russia sent tens of thousands of troops to Ukraine on February 3.

At the time, the ruble was trading at roughly 80 to the dollar and 90 to the euro as it was in a free-floating position, plagued by fears of sanctions and not backed by capital controls.

The ruble’s appreciation may be limited due to growing concern about the ruble’s strong impact on Russia’s revenue from selling goods abroad in foreign currency.

Capital controls made the ruble the best performing currency this year and helped put aside Russian bond issues.

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