Top Russian bankers spoke out Monday against the Central Bank's crackdown on commercial banks in the wake of last week's ruble crisis, denying charges that they had colluded to destabilize the Russian currency.


"We are saying openly that commercial banks have not staged any conspiracy," said Sergei Yegorov, president of the Association of Russian Banks. "It is absurd to blame them for the fact that our economy is weak."


Inkombank president Vladimir Vinogradov said a lack of investment instruments from the Central Bank to absorb liquid capital was responsible for the ruble's fall.


"Treasury bills were marked down to make it an unprofitable instrument for commercial banks," he said. "And banks started looking for more lucrative ways of investing money on the currency market."


He insisted that this was a normal response for banks. "Banks must always behave this way. They have liabilities to pay to their clients, they have interest to pay on their capital."


A commission set up to investigate the ruble's 845-point crash last week had planned to present a list of responsible commercial banks to the Security Council for consideration Saturday, but the meeting was postponed indefinitely, according to Vladimir Rubanov, the council's deputy chairman.


"All I can say is that real financial experts are working on these questions," said Rubanov. "Their findings will not be politically colored. A preliminary report has already been given to the president."


Last week, selected banks received letters from the Central Bank requiring that they provide detailed information on their dollar purchases for the two weeks preceding the ruble's crash last Tuesday. Banks are only allowed to trade a limited amount of hard currency over and above customer orders.


Demand for dollars was a low $44 million Monday on the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange, or MICEX, largely due to new Central Bank rules that require banks to pay for dollar purchases in advance and forbid them to add or remove bids during trading. The ruble fell eight points to 2,996 per dollar in thin trading.


Dealers said that the Central Bank's strict vigilance at the MICEX was driving trade off the official exchange and creating a dual exchange rate.


In private interbank trades Monday, the dollar sold for about 3,100 rubles, dealers said.


"It's not profitable to buy dollars on the MICEX now," said Yevgeny Rogachyov, a hard-currency trader at Menatep. "It's better to pay more, but to receive your dollars immediately. The gap in exchange rates will only widen."


Sergei Shmelkov, president of CBC Bank, agreed. "We don't like the secret game of the Central Bank, when no other bank can actually react during the session," he said.He estimated that as much as 60-75 percent of trading now occurs off-market.