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Foreign investment funds involved in attack on ruble, says foreign intelligence chief

“No one wants to see a strong and independent Russia” he said

MOSCOW, December 4. /TASS/. The U.S. and its allies are seeking to change state power in Moscow through sanctions and attacks on the ruble and the oil price, Mikhail Fradkov, the director of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service said in an interview with Bloomberg on Thursday.

“Such a desire has been noticed, it’s a small secret” he said. “No one wants to see a strong and independent Russia.”

Foreign investment funds are tightly involved in the ongoing jobber attack on the Russian ruble and they are taking part in it via intermediaries.

“Any speculation has specific schemes and the schemes have a number of participants,” he said.

Fradkov also believes that a decline of more than 30% in oil prices is caused partly by U.S. actions, which aim to force Russia to focus entirely on the solution of its domestic problems.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in his annual state-of-the-nation address earlier on the same day the Russian authorities knew who was behind the bearish play against the ruble. He demanded that the Finance Ministry and the Central Bank of Russia /CBR/ punish the jobbers by every means possible.

Putin said the CBR had enough instruments for this, although he made no further specifications.

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