Vladimir Putin signed a decree on the transfer of exports of agricultural products to settlements in national currencies

The list of such products will be approved by the government within 30 days. The settlement and account opening mechanism will come into force on November 1, 2023. it will be in addition to the measures taken in connection with the unfriendly actions of the United States and other countries, and it is also necessary to ensure the financial stability of RUSSIA in the field of currency regulation.

The opening of special accounts will be carried out on the basis of applications from foreign buyers by credit institutions that are authorized banks in accordance with the law on foreign exchange regulation and exchange control. Buyers transfer funds to a special currency account of type “Z” in foreign currency, after which they sell it through an authorized bank or entrust a credit organization with the sale of currency at organized auctions. In turn, the bank credits the funds received in rubles to a special ruble account of type “Z” of the foreign buyer. Then, on the basis of an order and an extract from the register of agreements concluded at organized auctions, the bank transfers the credited funds in rubles to the account of a resident participant in foreign economic activity.

The office of Deputy Prime Minister Victoria Abramchenko told Izvestia in early August that there is already interest in payments in national currencies from the countries of the Persian Gulf and Africa. Such calculations have already been made with the EAEU countries and CHINA. Therefore, according to the Deputy Prime Minister, regulatory changes are necessary to scale these successful pilot practices. Deputy Prime MinisterMinister of Agriculture of Chuvashia Sergei Artamonov then told the publication that innovations would strengthen Russia’s position in the EXPORT market, expand opportunities and simplify payments. 

The day before, Russian Ambassador to Qatar Dmitry Dogadkin told RIA Novosti that Russia was proposing that Qatar switch to using national currencies in payments, work in this direction is underway. In April, the Foreign Ministry reported that Russia expects to switch to national currencies in settlements with Latin American countries. “Both Russia and Latin America have their own competitive advantages in the context of the objective processes of forming a multipolar world order,” the ministry noted. “It is important to make maximum use of the complementary nature of our economies to build full-fledged design, production, and technological alliances, and to accelerate the transition to payments in national and alternative currencies to the DOLLAR and euro.”

During the plenary session of the Russia-Africa economic and humanitarian forum, Vladimir Putin spoke about the need to switch to national currencies in financial settlements with African countries. “We are ready to work with African countries to develop their financial infrastructure, to connect banking institutions to the Financial Message Transmission System created in Russia, which allows cross-border payments to be made regardless of some of the existing and restrictive Western systems today,” the president noted.