Iran Press/ Europe: Russia will move away the dollar and the euro in commercial, economic, and investment relations with partners, as these currencies have become "toxic" amid growing pressure from the West, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Pankin said in an interview with TASS.
"Against the growing geopolitical pressure from the ‘collective West’, the only way to guarantee stable trade, economic, and investment ties between Russia and its partners is to avoid the use of currencies that have become ‘toxic’, primarily the US dollar and the euro, and switch to settlements in acceptable alternatives, primarily in national currencies," Pankin said.
The diplomat noted that the current global financial system built by Washington has proven to be "unsuitable for the conditions of a multipolar world order and has essentially become an instrument for achieving political goals of one group of countries."
Related news:
Russia's ruble rises against euro to its highest level since June 2015
"It is quite obvious that in the current conditions the West intends to continue to abuse its privileged position," Pankin continued. "It is encouraging to see that many nations, seeing extraordinary and illegitimate sanctions against Russia, are thinking about the need to de-dollarize foreign economic activity to ensure their sovereignty. As it turned out, if there is political will, the issue is quite solvable," he added.
Russia moves from SWIFT
According to Pankin, the Bank of Russia is actively developing the Financial Message Transmission System.
Russia sees the need gradually transition from the system of interbank payments SWIFT to more secure mechanisms for transferring financial information protected from external pressure, added deputy FM.
"We proceed from the need for a gradual transition from SWIFT to financial information transfer mechanisms protected from external pressure, for which we are actively developing the System for Transfer of Financial Messages (SPFS) of the Bank of Russia. This is a forced, but completely natural decision in an environment where Russian banks and their clients regularly encounter problems with routine international payments," he said.
"At the same time, we are certain that not only Russia, but also other pragmatic states, of which there are many, are interested in the emergence of a truly unbiased and independent of Western countries' changing moods international payment infrastructure," the diplomat added.
Russia in talks to use Mir card with countries
The diplomat also called blocking all Russian clients by the largest international payment systems unreasonable.
Russia is negotiating the use of Mir payment card with several countries, including Azerbaijan, China, and Egypt, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Pankin said in an interview with TASS.
"The unreasonable blocking of all Russian customers by the largest international card payment systems has increased the priority of expanding the geography of using Mir cards. We are actively working on it," he said. "Negotiations with Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Egypt, India, China, Cuba, Myanmar, Nigeria, Thailand, and other countries are at different stages," Pankin said.
He recalled that the Russian payment system currently could be used in such countries as Abkhazia, Armenia, Belarus, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Uzbekistan, South Korea, and South Ossetia.
207
Read more:
Russian rouble hits 2-year high vs dollar, euro as EU proposes sanctions
