Russia is gradually reducing the share of the US dollar in the US economy and foreign exchange reserves, State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin told reporters.
“For example, within the framework of the EAEU, settlements in national currencies have grown to 74%. We are systematically increasing trade in national currencies with China and Turkey,” he said.
The speaker of the lower house also recalled that at the end of February Russia changed the currency structure of the National Wealth Fund, including the Japanese yen and the Chinese yuan. At the same time, Volodin stressed, the share of US dollars and euros decreased from 45% to 35%, while the share of the pound sterling remained at the level of ten percent.
Earlier, the chairman of the Federation Council, Valentina Matvienko, said in an interview with RIA Novosti that the US dollar will remain in circulation in Russia, but the economy’s dependence on it must be reduced.
The Federation Council speaker also recalled that Russian gold and foreign exchange reserves are already much less dependent on the dollar, but there are other tangible results: over the past ten years, Moscow’s investments in government obligations of the United States have decreased 30 times.
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov in an interview with Bloomberg noted that Russia needs to reduce the role of the dollar in any operations, eliminating “dependence on this poisonous source of constant hostile actions.”
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