Dollar’s fate in Russia revealed

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

He stressed that the Chinese yuan will lead the process amid strong Moscow-Beijing cooperation that has deepened amid recent Western sanctions against Russia.

“We are switching to mutual trading in yuan and ruble settlements and moving away from dollars and euros,” Torosov told RT at the seventh annual Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok. “It inevitably leads there.”

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

Last month, the yuan-ruble trade outperformed the dollar-ruble pair on the Moscow Stock Exchange for the first time ever. The yuan-ruble pair also outperformed the euro-ruble pair in volume in late July. In August, Russia’s volume of payments in Chinese currency made the country the world’s third-largest market outside of mainland China for the yuan.