Daily Times

Russia has said that it will sell its goods abroad in its national currency after President Vladimir Putin said the west must buy its natural gas with roubles.

President Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian television on Sunday, “It is still a prototype system (of payments) but I’m convinced that it will cover other groups of goods and it will take up a larger role in our foreign trade.”

He argued that western gas buyers would be required to exchange roubles for euros or US dollars, effectively continuing to pay in their preferred currencies as stipulated by gas contracts with the state Russian energy company. “The final payment will go to Gazprom in roubles after these euros are converted to roubles,” Peskov explained.

Dmitry Peskov said the western sanctions policy is accelerating the process of erosion of the world reserve currency, with an increasing number of countries considering options for mutual settlements in national currencies.

“This is the erosion of confidence in the Dollar and the euro, which have always been some kind of a spine for all international settlements. More and more countries, having doubts about the reliability of dollars and euros, are inclined to develop options for mutual settlements in national currencies. This process cannot be stopped, it will go on increasing,” Peskov said.

He added that in the long term the world economy will come to a new system of monetary management, different from the Bretton Woods one.