(Russia, China, Iran, Syria, and most other nations including those in South America are behaving more responsibly than the US and its NATO puppets.
I applaud Russia’s move toward independence from the US Dollar – Ben)
Russian President Vladimir Putin has drafted a bill that aims to eliminate the US dollar and the euro from trade between CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) countries.This means the creation of a single financial market between Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and other countries of the former Soviet Union.
“This would help expand the use of national currencies in foreign trade payments and financial services and thus create preconditions for greater liquidity of domestic currency markets”, said a statement from Kremlin.
The bill would also help to facilitate trade in the region and help to achieve macro-economic stability.
Within the framework of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) the countries have also discussed the possibility of switching to national currencies. According to the agreement between Russia, Belarus, Armenia and Kazakhstan, an obligatory transition to settlements in the national currencies (Russian ruble, Belarusian ruble, dram and tenge respectively) must occur in 2025-2030.
Today, some 50 percent of turnover in the EEU is in dollars and euro, which increases the dependence of the union on countries issuing those currencies. Outside the CIS and EEU, Russia and China have been trying to curtail the dollar’s dominance as well.
In August, China’s central bank put the Russian ruble into circulation in Suifenhe City, Heilongjiang Province, launching a pilot two-currency (ruble and yuan) program. The ruble was introduced in place of the US dollar.
China’s central bank has put the Russian ruble into circulation in Suifenhe City, Heilongjiang Province, launching a pilot two-currency (ruble and yuan) program. The ruble is being introduced in place of the US dollar.The announcement was made on Saturday by Jin Mei, deputy secretary for monetary policy at the opening ceremony of a trade exposition in Suifenhe, reported state-run Xinhua news agency.
The newly-adopted initiative is to promote bilateral trade relations and boost tourism, enabling Russians traveling to the Chinese region to pay for their expenses directly in rubles. This year’s six month Russia-China financial results look promising with yuan-denominated payments reaching the value of $1.32 billion, added Mei.
Wu Qinglan, executive vice-mayor of the Chinese city, believes the program guarantees a long-term outlook.
“Next, we will carry out dual currency settlement in shopping malls, hotels and restaurants in Suifenhe. All the banks will provide services accomplishing the storage and exchange of rubles,” she said, as cited by the CRI English news website.
A staff member at the local Qingyun Market shared his impressions about the move: “On our price tag, there are two currencies: one is renminbi [China’s domestic currency], and the other, the ruble. This has greatly simplified our trades. The Russian merchants this is convenient, and so do we.”
In 2014, the Russian Central Bank and the People’s Bank of China signed a three-year currency swap agreement, worth 150 billion yuan (around $23.5 billion), thus boosting financial cooperation between the two countries.
It’s now up to the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, to ratify the president’s bill to become law.
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