Dollar’s fate in Russia revealed

Deputy Economy Minister Ilya Torosov expects de-dollarization to only intensify

Trading volumes in the currencies of "friendly nations" will multiply in the near future, according to Deputy Economy Minister Ilya Torosov, who expects the de-dollarization of the Russian economy to only gain momentum in the near future.

He stressed that the Chinese yuan would lead the process amid strong cooperation between Moscow and Beijing, which has deepened even more in the wake of the latest Western sanctions imposed on Russia.

“We are switching to mutual trade using yuan and ruble settlements, and moving away from dollar and euro,” Torosov told RT at the seventh annual Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok. “This is inevitably leading there.”

The deputy minister added that mutual payments using the ruble and the currencies of “friendly states” are one of the major goals for the Russian government and its allies.

Last month, yuan-ruble trading outpaced the dollar-ruble pairing on the Moscow Exchange for the first time ever. The yuan-ruble pair also exceeded volumes in the euro-ruble pair in late July. In August, Russia’s payment volumes in the Chinese currency made the country the third largest market in the world outside mainland China for yuan. 

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