Russia's energy minister said the country is willing to accept the virtual currency in exchange for oil and gas exports from countries like China and Turkey. According to translated remarks, Zavalny said that Western countries can pay in the ruble and gold if they want to buy Russian energy. He said that countries like China and Turkey are open to payment in their own currency. We have been suggesting to China for a long time to use settlements in national currency for rubles and yuan. He said that you can also trade bitcoins. Many buyers are shunning Russian oil in the face of Western sanctions, driving trade to bargain-hunting countries like China and India. The US and UK have imposed embargoes on energy exports, though the European Union hasn't moved to ban the trade yet. The use of alternatives to the euro or the US dollar in international trade has become more flexible in Russia.
Russia gets most of its income from energy. The oil and gas trade brought in $119 billion in revenue for the country in 2011.
Zavalny said he supported the decision of Putin to sell natural gas to hostile nations. The ruble rose to a three-week high against the dollar on Wednesday after the move sent European gas prices soaring.
Zavalny said that if they want to buy gold, they should pay in hard currency or the national currency.
Beijing last year declared allcryptocurrencies illegal, so it isn't clear how Russia's acceptance would work with China. Foreign exchanges were banned from providing services to Chinese residents.
In 2021, Putin said that he recognized the value of cryptocurrencies, but that it was too early to evaluate their usefulness for crossborder payments in the oil trade. He said that Russia wanted to stop using dollar-denominated payments.
Russia formally recognized bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as currency in early February.
Around the time reports of Zavalny's comments made the rounds, the price of the virtual currency spiked. The coin was up 2% on Friday.
Several businesses in Russia have stopped carrying out services in the country due to the blocking of Russian banks from using the international SWIFT payment system.
Russia has found alternatives to normal channels because of the sanctions. Christine Lagarde, the President of the European Central Bank, highlighted this week that the Russian private sector is using virtual currency to skirt sanctions.
Bank of America offers 3 price scenarios for oil, gas, and metals as the Russia-Ukraine conflict makes it necessary to hedge inflation.
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