The energy chief of the Russian Federation, Pavel Zavalny, has mentioned the possibility of Russia welcoming Bitcoin as a valid payment option for providing gas and oil to its “friendly countries” for instance Turkey and China. He further stated that these two countries could start paying for energy in Russian Rubles, Turkish Lira, Chinese Yuan and even Bitcoin (BTC) rather than using the US dollar, which is the international standard.
As per the RBC, the Russian news media agency, Zavalny, who is the chairman of the State Duma Committee, stated on a March 24 press conference that he and the representatives of the other two countries (which by the way is Turkey and China) has begun to discuss on the changes that they can about preferred currencies while conducting their biggest export.
The representatives of Russia have been proposing to China for quite some time in order to change the process of liquidation using the national currencies like yuan and rubles instead of using US dollars. The same came to be done with Turkey using lira and rubles. This is normal practice among countries, and the set of currencies can differ. And if the both parties agree, they can also conduct transactions using Bitcoins (BTC).
Zavalny also stated that the other “unfriendly” could opt to pay in either gold or rubles. But things are not clear on the subject of whether Russia has the ability to change terms and conditions of the existing country contracts that make payment using USD and Euro.
Right now, Russia is looking for ways to overcome the levied economic sanctions against them by other countries because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. To prevent Russians from conducting cross-border transactions, Russian banks have been disconnected from the SWIFT system. Moreover, most of the trading and dealing companies have been restricted from making any kind of deals with Russia except for trading gas and oil with them.
For Europe and other countries searching for and replacing an energy source is a very tough decision, and they are finding it very hard to find an appropriate alternative energy source. As for Russia, energy is a major commodity that they export, and it is also an essential energy source for the EU and other nations. In the opinion of Reuters, the trade of Oil and Gas brought about 119 billion dollars in revenue to Russia last year.
According to the Russia Briefing, natural gas, kerosene, electricity and coal accounted for 53.8 percent of Russia’s total export, which amounts to US 388.4 billion dollars in 2021. After hearing the announcement, the crypto industry has reacted positively, and the use case of BTC in the international market has expanded. CoinGecko suggests that Bitcoin is 2.5 percent high over the last few days and approaching trading at 44003 USD.
