1.   Instead, it will now offer investors an opportunity to convert their ruble denominated treasury bills into longer-term dollar denominated bonds.

2.   Many of them also have contracts with Western investors requiring them to convert rubles into dollars at agreed-on exchange rates.

3.   Some Russians rushed to convert their rubles to dollars after the announcement Monday morning.

4.   The Central Bank is spending still more to deal with Russian investors who are converting their rubles to dollars.

5.   The rubles are then converted into dollars by investors eager to take their money out of Russia.

6.   The worry was that a foreign panic might set off a stampede in the treasury bill market in which investors would convert their rubles into dollars.

7.   Many Russians have been hedging their bets on the economy for a long time by converting rubles to dollars and German marks as quickly as they get them.

8.   The third obvious choice is to convert the rubles to U.S. dollars.