Russia will promptly start charging unfriendly countries in rubles for gas supplies, President Vladimir Putin announced. There are over 45 unfriendly countries on the list, including the United States and European Union members, as well as Australia, Canada, Singapore, Montenegro and Switzerland. Experts interviewed by Izvestia are confident that it is in fact the only way to overcome the dominant role of the dollar.
The idea of charging unfriendly countries in rubles for Russian gas supplies can be viewed as timely and coherent, said Professor with the Department of World Economy and International Economic Relations at the State University of Management Yevgeny Smirnov. “It clearly stems from the need to strengthen the weakened national currency but it is more of an extraordinary measure and a political rather than an economic one. The pressure of sanctions imposed by the United States and European Union countries require unusual responses. Moreover, Russia needs to step up the use of national currencies in trade with friendly countries, too, and the trend has already emerged,” the expert pointed out.
In many ways, it was Western countries that pushed Russia to take such a step because European companies’ suspension of trade with Russia led to a sharp decline in imports, and when there are no imports of goods and services, there is no need for the euro as a means of payment, Director of BCS World of Investment’s regional network for high-end clients Grigory Sosnovsky emphasized.
“Perhaps the move is a message or the first step on the long but inevitable road to Russia’s departure from dollar and euro payments. One thing is clear: the freezing of Russia’s assets cannot go unnoticed and Moscow will keep reacting to it,” the analyst concluded.
