A senior Russian politician has suggested turning to bitcoin (BTC) as an alternative to the USD in international energy exports and trade deals.
The comments were made by Pavel Zavalny, a member of the ruling United Russia Party and the Chairman of the State Duma (Russias parliament) Committee on Energy.
In a video press conference organized by the Rossiya Segodnya news agency, Zavalny stated:
“We have been suggesting to China for a long time that we switch to settlements made in our national currencies – the ruble and the yuan. With Turkey, it would be the [Turkish] lira and the ruble. The set of currencies used could be different. That is normal practice. If [trade needs to be done in] bitcoin, we will trade in bitcoin.”
On March 2, in an emergency session of the UN‘s general assembly, 141 of the 193 member states voted for a resolution deploring Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and demanded to end the invasion. 35 countries abstained, and five (Russia including) voted against. The only countries that supported the war were Belarus, North Korea, Eritrea, and Syria. China and India were among those that abstained.
Meanwhile, Zavalny also reaffirmed Moscows decision to force 48 “countries unfriendly to Russia” to pay for certain energy resources in either gold or in Russian rubles. Tass earlier reported that president Vladimir Putin had decreed that the nations on the list would be required to provide ruble payments.
The list includes the EU member states, many of which are highly dependent on Russian gas and oil exports.
It is not clear if the MPs remarks were meant in earnest or as an illustration of the fact that Russia intends to ditch the USD post-haste in its trade deals using any means possible. Moscow is not known to currently have any BTC or altcoin holdings.
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