The Russian rouble dipped slightly at the start of trading on Wednesday, while stocks held steady, shielded from the widespread global sell-off of recent days by Moscow’s capital controls.

At 0830 GMT, the rouble was 0.2% weaker against the dollar at 56.74 and had slipped 0.1% to trade at 59.19 against the euro.

The currency remains near multi-year highs thanks to Russia’s surging current account surplus and capital controls - recently softened - that Moscow introduced after the imposition of Western sanctions in a bid to stop a run on the rouble.

Rouble hits fresh highs against dollar, euro

Russian stock indexes were also insulated from the turmoil on global markets in trading on Wednesday morning in Moscow.

The dollar-denominated RTS index was up 0.25% to 1275.9 points.

The rouble-based MOEX Russian index was 0.1% higher at 2291.4 points.

Russia’s political and business elite descended on St. Petersburg on Wednesday for Russia’s annual economic forum.

Once a symbol of the Kremlin’s openness to international investment, this year’s conference features panels addressing sanctions and a lack of Western businesses.

Hundreds of companies have pulled out of Russia in response to Moscow sending tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in what it calls a “special military operation.”