The Russian ruble strengthened against both the euro and the US dollar on Tuesday, trading data from the Moscow Exchange shows.

As of 10:07 GMT the Russian currency had jumped roughly 0.96% compared to the end of the previous day's trading to 76.42 rubles against the euro, its highest in nearly two years, and gained around 0.92% against the greenback to trade at 72.45 per dollar, reaching a five-month high.

The rally comes as the market expects companies to make a record 3 trillion rubles ($40.25 billion) worth of tax payments due this week. Analysts say the tax boost may propel the Russian currency further, as some export-oriented firms will have to sell foreign currency to make the payments.

Market players also anticipate the rate decision due from the Russian central bank on Friday.

The key interest rate was hiked to 20% last month to tackle the impact of sanctions placed on the country by a number of Western states in retaliation for the launch of a military operation in Ukraine. Earlier this month, however, the Bank of Russia cut the rate to 17% as the economy stabilized, and some analysts expect it to be lowered further to 15% on Friday. This could cause the ruble rally to subside, experts say.

However, the Bank of Russia on Monday announced it would cut the time frame it uses to calculate the official exchange rate by one hour. According to Sberbank CIB analysts, this move suggests an improvement in the liquidity situation on the foreign exchange market.

Meanwhile, Russian stock indexes also saw gains on Tuesday. As of 10:05 Moscow time, the dollar-denominated RTS index was up 2.12% at 961.75 points. The ruble-based MOEX index was up 1.16% at 2,210.95 points.

Twitter has gone on internal lockdown in order to prevent woke employees from taking revenge in response to Elon Musk's takeover of the company.

Yes, really.

After Musk completed his $44 billion purchase of the social media network, leftists responded with their usual brand of hysterical moral grandstanding and empty threats to leave the platform altogether.

However, the company is also concerned about the internal reaction, with concerns that angry, woke employees would stage performative hissy fits [to] harm the platform in response to Musk's purchase.

Twitter has locked down all changes apart from "business-critical" updates in a bid to halt and collateral damage.

Yahoo Finance reported:

"Product changes will require approval from a vice president. Twitter imposed the temporary ban to keep employees who may be miffed about the deal from 'going rogue,' according to one of the people."

The report notes that many employees are "agitated" about what Musk plans to do with the company and, God forbid, predicate it on true free speech.

Alarmed leftists are also petrified that prominent banned individuals, such as Donald Trump and Alex Jones, could make a return to the platform.

Musk previously explained how it is "extremely important for the future of civilization" for Twitter to once again become a true public square for freedom of expression:

"It's important for the function of democracy. It's important for the function of the United States as a free country among many other countries. And to help, actually to help freedom in the world more importantly than the US."

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