A journalist from Russia's Vedomosti financial newspaper has advised readers to withdraw their saving from banks, and to convert them into physical US dollars.
Andrey Panov writes:
"It is better to keep money in foreign currency (dollars more than euros as the US economy is doing better than the EU) and prepare for what many economists are already saying could be a return to the conditions of the 1990s."
He continues: "It is better to take your savings, or at least a portion of them, out of the banks. Who can guarantee that what will happen next won't be a situation in which all foreign currency deposits are forcibly converted [into rubles] or frozen? After all, the black market in cash worked even in Soviet times."
The Russian newspaper is a joint venture between the Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal.
Ruble value against the Pound Sterling over the last 12 months, XE.com
The ruble has nose-dived over the last 12 months, falling by over 50 percent. The collapse of the currency has made a lot of consumer products more expensive because imports now cost more. Inflation was 15 percent in January.
Its central bank spent $2.3bn (€2bn) buying rubles to prop up the currency's value in January - having already spent $12bn (€10.5bn) in December.
The Russian finance ministry said last week that it expects Russia's GDP to contract by 3 percent this year.
