Putin says Russia will not force exporters to sell forex
MOSCOW, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday his government did not plan to issue orders to domestic exporters to sell their foreign-currency earnings to support the rouble, which suffered a dramatic collapse earlier this week.
Putin also told an end-of-year news conference that the central bank should have stopped its forex market interventions a long time ago and that if it had, it would not have had to raise its key interest rate in an emergency move this week.
(Reporting by Lidia Kelly, Writing by Alexander Winning, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
