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Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, center, says the US is trying to promote its business interests around the world by sanctioning Russian business leaders [PPIO]
Stocks on the benchmark dollar-traded RTS exchange plummeted 11.3 per cent by closing time on Monday while the ruble currency took its biggest one-day plunge in two years from 59.11 to 57.88 to the dollar.
The ruble-traded MICEX index fell 8.5 per cent.
The market turbulence comes on the first day of business after the US Treasury on April 6 announced its measures against 38 prominent Russians for what it said were malicious Russian activities around the world.
Major Russian companies suffered between a 25 and 50 per cent fall in value in exchanges around the world.
Russian officials called the sanctions illegal. In the government’s first official response, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said “these decisions are unacceptable, and we consider them illegitimate, since they are generally outside the domain of international law”.
He added that Russia would respond using existing international trade procedures.
Medvedev also said that the sanctions were designed to help US business interests around the world.
It is unclear what long-term effects the latest bout of sanctions will have on the Russian economy which the World Bank said earlier had turned the corner on recession.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that the government was still studying the effects of the newest sanctions on local business and foreign investment.
The BRICS Post with inputs from Agencies
