Alwaght- President Vladimir Putin has reiterated Russia’s resolve to reduce dependence on the US dollar in oil trade while urging more use of the national currency, the ruble.
Addressing oil executives and government officials in the Kremlin, Putin renewed the call, saying national currencies should be widely used in operations with the countries with which Russia is actively trading.
"A serious consideration of the complex issue of enhancing the ruble's role in settlements, including in the energy sector, should be started," Reuters quoted him as saying.
Apart from using the ruble, Russia is also proposing use of other currencies such as the Chinese Yuan in oil trade.
Moscow’s plans to cut transactions in the dollar have found added momentum in the wake of Western sanctions which restrict Russia’s access to international capital.
In September, Putin proposed a bill to the country’s legislature to eliminate the dollar and the euro from trade between member states of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
In April this year, bank officials in Tehran said that a mechanism to transfer money to the country’s banks from Russia is now on stream.
Gholam-Reza Panahi, the deputy governor for currency affairs of Bank Melli of Iran (BMI), said the mechanism enables Iranian exporters to transfer payments in rubles from their Russian clients to Iran through the Moscow-based Mir Business Bank.
He said Iranian exporters can even choose the same bank for opening letters of credit.
Both countries have been subject to a series of illegal and draconian US-engineered sanctions.