Putin Says Dump Dollar
By RT
September 01, 2015 "Information
Clearing House"
- "RT"
- Russian President Vladimir Putin
has drafted a bill that aims to eliminate the US dollar and the
euro from trade between CIS 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.
READ MORE: Time for Russia & Vietnam to think of
switching to local currencies – Medvedev
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.
