The Russian ruble is surging after the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control published an amendment to former President Barack Obama's sanctions order against Russia to "authorize certain transactions" with Russia's Federal Security Service.
The ruble is up by 2.2% at 58.8549 per dollar as of 12:34 p.m. ET.
The new authorization will allow US companies to pay up to $5,000 per year to the FSB - which oversees technology imports into Russia - to secure licenses from the security services to export information technology products to Russia, as long as other aspects of the sanctions order aren't violated, according to the document published by the Treasury.
The Obama administration had imposed sanctions against the FSB first in April 2015 and again in December 2016.