He abandons the Russian currency, creating difficulty (7)
I believe the answer is:
trouble
'difficulty' is the definition.
(trouble is a kind of difficulty)
'he abandons the russian currency' is the wordplay.
'abandons' indicates named letters should be taken away.
'russian currency' becomes 'rouble' (I've seen this before).
'the' with 'he' taken out is 't'.
't'+'rouble'='TROUBLE'
'creating' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for trouble that I've seen before include "Conflict" , "Cause distress to; unrest" , "Discord" , "Difficulty; cause distress to" , "Trial, care, worry" .)