Yes, and to add to your analysis, the dividends they’d be getting would be buying them a far greater number of rubles every quarter.
Every financial transaction represents a preference. The buyer thinks he is getting something of equal or greater value than what he/she tenders. And sometimes, many times, the buyer could be choosing a ROI of zero in place of a ROI of -7%. In that case, the bargain is enhanced because the buyer not only thinks he/she may be making a decent investment, but is probably avoiding loss. The entire world is engaged in a game of chasing yield, whether coupon or cap gain, is it not?
In the same way, the seller expresses a preference for the cash tendered by the seller over the “thing”.
Sometimes both are right, sometimes both are wrong. Sometimes, in the case of a holder of currency in a ruinous inflation, the urge to chase goods, to buy anything, is well known. We can think we are or are not doing so when we buy ordinary US stocks. Only time will tell. But a Russian holding rubles subject to *overnight* deterioration equivalent to *a whole year* of nominal stock market appreciation has got to be happy to make such a trade. That they are getting [allegedly] transparent companies with [allegedly] the best mgmt in the world in what is inarguably the most liquid market in the world, these are only plusses. So regardless of the scurrilous nature of the forces behind it, IMO, this is a powerful set of motives.