The Russian ruble's devaluation was central to the 1998 Russian financial crisis.
On August 17, 1998, Russia devalued the ruble, defaulted on some domestic debt, and temporarily suspended payments on foreign debt held by private creditors. The government had been under pressure from falling oil prices, weak tax collection, political instability, and heavy short-term borrowing.
The crisis caused the ruble to lose much of its value and contributed to severe disruption in Russian banks and businesses. It also helped trigger the collapse of Long-Term Capital Management in the United States, whose highly leveraged positions became harder to manage amid global market turmoil.
A common mistake is to call this the 1997 Asian financial crisis. The Russian crisis followed that turmoil but had its own fiscal and commodity-price pressures. Russia later benefited from higher oil prices and a more stable financial position in the 2000s.