The line held. After the Bank of Russia called a halt to the rouble’s slow-motion devaluation in January, the expected speculative attack on the floor of 41 to a dollar/euro basket never happened. Instead, the currency has strengthened – the central bank even bought dollars last Thursday to prevent excessive appreciation.

That is reason for relief, but no celebration, in Moscow. Russia, after all, has spent a third of its foreign exchange reserves since August on slowing the rouble’s 30 per cent devaluation to a pace that avoided panicking Russians. The rouble’s stabilisation owes much to oil prices staying above $40 a barrel. Its upward spurt on Thursday resulted from a wobbling dollar and spike in commodity prices after the Federal Reserve’s plans for huge quantitative easing. The economic outlook remains as chilly as a Moscow winter. Some 1.1m Russians have lost jobs since December. Retail sales fell year on year in February – for the first time in nine years.