US Dollar at nearly 74.4 Rubles, Euro down to 88.26 Rubles

Moscow: The Russian ruble fell against the US dollar at Tuesday opening amid rising oil prices.
As of 04:10 GMT on Tuesday, the dollar exchange rate for “tomorrow” settlement grew by 20 kopecks to 74.44 rubles, while the euro was down 19 kopecks to 88.25 rubles, according to the Moscow Exchange.
The Brent crude price was up 1.1 percent on Tuesday morning, at $69 per barrel.
Russian upper house speaker, Valentina Matviyenko, told Sputnik at the start of March that it was necessary to reduce dependence of the Russian economy on a single currency.
According to Matviyenko, the Central Bank and the Russian government have been pursuing a policy of de-dollarization in recent years and the gold and foreign exchange reserves of Russia are already less dependent on the dollar.