Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday ordered strong measures to support the ruble, a currency that has hit record lows against the dollar and euro after Western sanctions aimed at punishing the invasion of Ukraine.

According to a decree published on the Kremlin's website quoted by Lusa, residents in Russia are prohibited from transferring foreign currency abroad as of Tuesday.

In addition, Russian exporters will have to convert 80% of foreign currency revenues into rubles since January 1 and continue to maintain an 80% liquidity ratio in rubles in the future.

The announcement of these dramatic measures comes at a time when the Russian economy is trying to bolster its defenses against sanctions announced by Western countries in reaction to Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, which began last Thursday.

Also on Monday, Canada banned its financial institutions from engaging in "transactions" with the Bank of Russia to prevent it from using international foreign exchange reserves and limit Moscow's ability to finance the war.

"We will continue to work closely together to hold Russia accountable for its unjustified invasion of Ukraine," said Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who announced via the social network Twitter that the ban went into effect "immediately" and that the decision was made "in coordination" with the other G7 (the world's most industrialized) countries.

In addition, Canada has imposed an asset freeze and a ban on conducting transactions with Russian sovereign wealth funds.

The Canadians' decision follows measures announced particularly by the United States and the European Union, which announced the exclusion of certain Russian banks from the Swift international banking payment system and banned all transactions with the Russian Central Bank.

The latter measure is aimed at neutralizing some of the huge foreign currency reserves that Russia has accumulated in recent years, especially from oil revenues.

However, selling foreign currency is one of the main tools used by countries that want to support their national currency.