you are on the money on every single statement you made. Trading is impossible, but the value of ruble gets fixed through a circuitous route.

Russia has been leveraging the amount of gold in its reserves. Unfortunately for them, gold has lost value over the past two weeks, further compounding the ruble's troubles. The fact that the Russian Central Bank has refrained from intervening by offloading its reserves to protect the ruble speaks volumes. They are running out of cash, which means the NWF is running low. The Ruble 's 100 breach is here to stay.