The freefall ruble that symbolizes Russia ’s economic crisis is also shielding its most important industry. Russian oil and gas companies are benefiting from earning dollars from sales of their products, while paying for expenses in rubles that have lost about half their value against the U.S. currency in the past five months. Still, the energy companies whose revenues brought power and status on the world’s stage to President Vladimir Putin are battling collapsing crude prices, hurdles to borrowing and sanctions imposed by the U.S. and Europe over the Ukraine conflict. Set against the short-term gains from the ruble’s slide is a recessionary backdrop that’s driving down stocks of all Russian commodity businesses, and raising concerns that oilfield exploration and development will be hindered. “The devaluation of the ruble under the same oil price is actually positive for all exporters, including oil companies ,” said Alexey Bulgakov, a Sberbank […]