By Alexander Marrow

MOSCOW, (Reuters) – The Russian rouble suffered a reversed gain on Wednesday and fell to around 80 US dollars as investors weighed the Western sanctions imposed upon Russia in response to its order for troops to be sent into the separatist territories of Eastern Ukraine.

After President Vladimir Putin recognized separatist enclaves within eastern Ukraine, the United States, Canada, Australia, Canada, Japan, and Britain responded, they planned to attack banks and elites, while Germany stopped a large-scale Russian gas pipeline.

On Wednesday, Liz Truss (British Foreign Secretary) announced that Britain will stop Russia from selling its sovereign debts in London.

At 1045 GMT the rouble had fallen 0.9% against the dollar (79.51) and was trading at 90.23 euros.

Russia celebrated the Defender of Fatherland public holiday Wednesday. Many traders were away from their desks on Wednesday. However, some trading continued.

Although the initial round of sanctions did not target major financial institutions, their effect could have been symbolic.

An increase in restrictions by the United States on Russian government bonds was announced. It prohibits participants from trading them. Analysts believe this will have some short-term impact, but it may be an indicator of a more severe policy.

In response to Washington’s decision, Russia’s Finance Ministry stated Wednesday that it will only offer new OFZ bonds.

Russian dollars bonds continued to lose, longer-dated Russian currency bonds dropping by more than 4c per trade, according Tradeweb data.

Some Ukrainian dollars bonds did worse, with the 2032 bond falling 5.5c to trade at USD 66.37c.

Investors now demand a higher premium for holding Russian and Ukrainian bonds than safe-have U.S. Treasuries. Both have increased sharply to 391 base points and 1280bps, respectively.

Global benchmark Russia’s largest export was down 0.5%, at $96.41/barrel

Russia’s RTS dollar-denominated index fell 0.4%, to 1,222.2 point.