Russia's Central Bank Chairwoman Elvira Nabiullina speaking to the State Duma in Moscow, explaining the so-called floating ruble policy:
"In our opinion, the floating exchange rate is especially needed now -- should external circumstances deteriorate, it will be the [floating] rate that will shock-absorb the main negative consequences protecting the internal financial market and economy."
"Our constitutional duty is precisely to ensure the stability of the ruble. However, in my opinion, we ought to stop measuring this stability only by foreign currencies -- how many dollars does one ruble buy. People are much more concerned about the amount of goods they can buy in rubles. Ruble's stability is first and foremost expressed in its purchasing power."
On the Russian central bank's decision to adopt what's being described as a "freely floating ruble" policy, according to TASS:
The Russian regulator's decision to switch to a freely floating ruble was not sudden or premature, Central Bank Chief Elvira Nabiullina said on Tuesday.
"The transition to a freely floating ruble requires a period of adaptation and the exchange rate can't be set free sharply. The market had a possibility to gradually adapt to it," she said in the lower house of Russia's parliament.
"The Central Bank planned to complete the transition to a freely floating ruble by the end of this year. So, the decision, which we made on November 10, was neither sudden nor premature," she said.
From Tallinn with love:
More from our newsroom on the release of convicted Putin assassination plotter Adam Osmayev by Ukrainian authorities:
A Ukrainian court has ordered the release of a Russian citizen who was jailed in 2012 over an alleged plot to kill Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The court in the Black Sea port city of Odesa on November 18 sentenced Adam Osmayev to time served -- about two years and nine months -- after convicting him of illegal explosives possession, damaging private property, and forgery.
But amid tension between Moscow and Kyiv over the conflict in eastern Ukraine, authorities dropped the attempted assassination charge against Osmayev last month.
Osmayev, an ethnic Chechen, was arrested in February 2012 after his associate, Kazakh citizen Ilya Pyanzin, was injured in the accidental explosion of a handmade bomb in Odesa. The blast killed a third man.
Osmayev and Pyanzin were charged with plotting to kill Putin.
Pyanzin was extradited to Russia and sentenced to 10 years in prison in September 2013.
Osmayev's extradition had been halted at the request of the European Court for Human Rights.
Based on reporting by TASS and Interfax
Here are some more details from our news desk regarding Kadyrov and his horses:
The Kremlin-backed head of Russia's Chechnya region says authorities in Germany have allowed two racehorses he keeps there to receive prize money despite Western sanctions against him.
German media reports last month said that authorities refused to pay monetary awards won by Kadyrov's horses, Zazu and Dashing Home, due to EU sanctions that bar him from traveling or holding assets in the European Union.
Kadyrov wrote on Instagram on November 18 that "common sense has at last prevailed over political intrigues" and that the prize money won by the horses can now be collected.
He had said earlier that tens of thousands of euros earned by the horses would be used for their upkeep in Germany.
Kadyrov is on a list of Russian and Ukrainian officials subject to EU sanctions because their activities jeopardize the territorial integrity, sovereignty, and independence of Ukraine.