The Bell: Russian Government Plans to Abandon the Dollar

The Russian government is preparing project of de-dollarizing the country’s economy. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev plans to approve the draft document in one or two weeks, the Bell reports citing three sources participating in the discussion of this plan. According to the media, the draft law does not imply a ban on settling in dollars. According to the interlocutor in one of the participating departments in the discussion, the focus is to create opportunities for settlements in national currencies. The initiative is aimed at facilitating currency control and liberalization of currency legislation. Russia is planning to use Yuan and Euro with its main trading partners China and the European Union, with the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union – rubles, one of the sources explained. At the level of central banks, there should be instrumentsto give access to liquidity in the currency of another country without the need to buy it in foreign exchange markets. Russian President Vladimir Putin generally supports the idea of de-dollarization of the Russian economy. According to the head of VTB bank, the process of transition to national currencies at the conclusion of contracts will take at least five years. Source: BUSINESS Online