A KEY element to President Vladimir Putin’s vision of growing Russian influence in the world is his plan to lead the former Soviet republics into an economic union.

    Right now, though, what he’s mostly doing is wiping out their currencies. Just as Russia’s financial crisis is finally showing signs of easing amid a tenuous cease-fire in Ukraine, the aftershocks are spreading from Moscow to former Kremlin satellites including Belarus, Azerbaijan and Moldova.

    Those three countries — along with Ukraine itself — dominate the very bottom of the world’s worst-performing currency list this year. And just one spot beyond them, right after the Brazilian real, is another regional currency, Georgia’s lari. All of these currencies have plunged more than 13 percent against the U.S. dollar, and three of them, led by the Belarus ruble, are down more than 25 percent.

    The declines are a reaction to the Russian ruble’s 46 percent collapse last year. That plunge threatened to flood smaller neighboring countries with suddenly cheaper Russian-made goods, swelling their import tabs and undermining their trade balance. The devaluations, while helping ease the pressure by keeping their currencies competitive with the ruble, bring a new set of problems by pushing up inflation and making it more expensive to repay foreign debt.

    For Azerbaijan, the selloff in oil has been a key cause of the decline too. Like Russia, it counts on crude for much of its export revenue. Belarus devalued its ruble in January and tightened capital controls after it dropped to an all-time low of 15,705 per dollar last month.

    Ukraine raised its benchmark interest rate last week to 30 percent, the world’s highest, after the hryvnia tumbled to a record 34.247 per dollar in February. Georgia and Armenia, whose currency lost 14 percent over the past year, have also lifted rates — again, to little effect. (SD-Agencies)