Russia has no plans to abandon the dollar as a reserve currency or a universal means of payment, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with the heads of world news agencies at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).
“As for the dollar, as I have already said, we are not trying to get rid of the dollar. If you have heard something that I am saying something about the dollar and understood that we want to get rid of it as a reserve currency or as a universal means of payment, this is not the case, ”he said.
The President explained that the United States uses its national currency for various sanctions, for example, Russia cannot, because of this, make payments in dollars with partners in the field of military-technical cooperation.
“We do not deliberately leave, but we have to do it. But when we do this, a certain system of our financial relations with partners takes shape. Already outside the dollar zone, “Putin added.
Earlier, the Ministry of Finance of Russia announced that from May 20 of this year, the dollar was excluded from the structure of the National Wealth Fund (NWF). Its share has been reduced from 35 to 0%. It will be replaced by the Chinese yuan and the euro “as the currencies of countries that are Russia’s leading foreign economic partners”, as well as gold as an asset that protects the NWF’s investments from inflationary risks. The Ministry of Finance substantiated this decision with the intention to ensure the safety of the NWF funds “in the context of macroeconomic and geopolitical trends of recent years”, as well as decisions aimed at “de-dollarization” of the Russian economy.
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