SINGAPORE, (Reuters) – The Russian rouble fell to a new record low against US dollars Monday after the West announced a string of harsh sanctions to hit Russia over the weekend for the invasion of Ukraine. This included sanctions on Russia’s currency reserves.

As of Asian trading, there was a 41.50% increase in the dollar/rouble rate to record 119.00 USD. The dollar has risen 53.77% against the rouble so far in this month.

In response to Western reprisals, Vladimir Putin of Russia ordered that his military command put its nuclear-armed forces on alert Sunday. This was in response to the West’s war against Ukraine, which is considered to be the most serious attack on an European country since World War Two.

Russia’s central banks announced on Sunday that they will take a variety of steps to assist domestic markets. This was in response to the impact of the SWIFT sanctions, which are expected to block certain banks.

The central bank stated that it would buy gold again on the domestic markets, launch a repurchase sale with no limits, and relax restrictions on open forex positions.

This currency received some support from Russia’s first central bank currency interventions after 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea.

Rabobank’s analysts stated that sanctions against currency reserves had reduced the support available to the rouble.

Even gold cannot be liquidated if it isn’t possible to exchange FX for it. They predicted a total collapse of the rouble …” today.

Ray Attrill (OTC: Head of FX Strategy at National Australia Bank) stated that a “collapse in the ruble appears probable on Monday morning” and that there is a greater risk of Russia defaulting on its debts as a consequence of weekend developments.

“For the rouble whilst you might see it should sell off somewhat, I really doubt you are going to see people put on fresh bets to sell the rouble at these levels – so you might well see it weakening, but I don’t think you will see people transacting all that heavily,” said Peter Kinsella, London-based global head of FX strategy at UBP.

There is an overall lack of liquidity. Where liquidity is available, it tends to be one-sided and biased towards rouble sellers. It will be tricky, I can see rouble weakening quite severely – but just because it is weakening doesn’t mean it will be transacting heavily.”