If Russian currency isn't being used much in the external market, maybe that's why. If yuan and rupees are the main currencies for buying oil, Russia could be holding those currencies instead or exchanging them for cash equivelants.
I believe that fundamentals of Russian economy appear robust when we look at them in the context of its substantial oil and gas reserves. This positions Russia as one of the major exporters of energy to Europe and many Asian countries including China and India, and those are significant world economies. However, unlike US Dollar, the Russian currency Ruble is not much used as payment method for global trade. This limited global utilization of the Ruble could contribute to the lower exchange rate of on the global market.
The problems of the Russian economy are based on their moral and psychiatric problems of its government, but that is not the topic of this forum, so let's talk about the real state of the economy.
The problem is that the Russian ruble on the world market is NOTHING. An empty place. You can't buy anything for it, it's not profitable to hold it. It is a toxic asset.
Rupiahs and Yuan, Russia cannot convert into something important - stable currencies like the US dollar, or buy critical goods for the economy. Russia's "friends" India and China are now literally "financially screwing" Russia ! India has banned and blocked the ability to convert Rupiahs into dollars. And also imposed strong restrictions on the sale of Rupees to Russia. Russia can't buy anything but primitive goods from India with the Rupees it can manage (and there are also frozen Rupees). China has done the same.
To understand the magnitude of the problem: "Russian oil producers, who have ramped up shipments to India by 11 times, are facing an inability to get a return for the crude they have sold. According to Reuters, about $39 billion is hanging in Indian banks, at the current exchange rate it is 3.6 trillion rubles, which is the annual budget of the entire program to support the Russian economy.".
This fact you can easily check
