Western Sanctions

: The ruble has fallen around 30 percent to the U.S. dollar since the beginning of last year, as Western sanctions over the Ukraine crisis and a drop in the price of oil, the country top export, strangle investment, according to The Moscow Times. The carrier spent 1.11 billion rubles on wages in the first three months of the year, or 41.3 percent less than during the same period last year, according to the report. The company is experiencing economic difficulties as the ruble slump raises operating costs and raises the cost of trips abroad for Russian tourists. Earlier in April UTair press office announced that the company cut 40 percent of its fleet, from 115 to 71 planes. A long-running battle between UTair and a top creditor, Alfa Bank, ended last week with an agreement to restructure the carrier debts. At the start of March the company total debt, including its mostly foreign-currency denominated leasing agreements, stood at almost 170 billion rubles , according to news website Lenta.ru. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.