Russia Discussing Stablecoin Settlements with Friendly Nations

According to Russian news agency Tass, Russia is considering the launch of clearing platforms for cross-border settlements in stablecoins and is discussing the development with friendly nation.

“We are currently working with a number of countries to create bilateral platforms in order not to use dollars and euros. We offer mutually acceptable tokenized instruments that will be used on these platforms, which are essentially clearing platforms that we are currently developing with these countries.”

While not mentioning the specific countries, Tass quoted the Bank of Russia and Finance Ministry who are both in agreement that following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the continuation of international trade “is impossible to do without cross-border settlements in cryptocurrency.”

In May, Director within Russia’s Ministry of Finance, Ivan Cheboskov, already said that “using digital currencies as barter transactions for international settlements is being actively discussed.” Other solutions include Russia moving to national currencies in settlements with friendly countries, such as Mongolia, bypassing the dollar and the euro, according to Russia’s Prime Minister, Mikhail Mishustin.

Russia has been trying to tighten crypto activity in the country previously and President Putin recently signed a law banning all digital payments. Nevertheless imposed sanctions require the country to be creative and there is ambiguity with Russian authorities on the future of cryptocurrencies, including mining operations.

On the one end, the Bank of Russia is proposing a complete ban on cryptocurrency, due to its systemic threat to the current financial system. Russia’s Ministry of Finance, however, asserts that cryptocurrencies should be legal and well-regulated