May 17 Reuters The Russian rouble weakened on Tuesday, stepping away from near fiveyear highs against the euro, after the central bank eased some capital controls that were the main driver of its strength in the past few weeks.

The rouble has become the world39;s bestperforming currency this year despite a fullscale economic crisis, although this is because of artificial support from controls that Russia imposed to shield its financial sector in late February after it sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine.

At 0741 GMT, the rouble was 0.7 weaker at 63.89 against the dollar , moving away from the 62.6250 level reached on Friday, its strongest since early February 2020.

Against the euro, the rouble fell 1.1 to 66.50 , hovering near its strongest level since mid2017 of 64.9425 that it touched last week.

The rouble pared gains after the central bank raised the ceiling for crossborder transactions, allowing Russian residents and nonresidents from friendly states to channel foreign currency abroad at an amount equivalent to up to 50,000 a month, from the previous limit of 10,000.

The bank39;s decision is unlikely to immediately change the balance of power in the market, where exportfocused companies are obliged to convert 80 of their revenues as the central bank can not intervene itself after the West froze about half of its gold and foreign exchange reserves.

But the latest move from the central bank can be seen as an indication that the recent phase of the rouble…