Answering a question in Moscow this week about what he would like to see from the upcoming U.S. midterm elections, Russian President Vladimir Putin again called his 2016 interference "alleged" and said he hoped American "elites" would just calm down about it.
TASS:
"I want obscurantism linked to the alleged Russian meddling in any election campaign in the United States to end, so that eventually US elites calm down, finally sort things out between each other so that there, like on the oil market, equilibrium and a certain balance of common sense and national interests is restored," Putin told the Russian Energy Week forum answering a question on what outcome of mid-term election to US Congress in November he wants to see.
The Russian leader hopes that "domestic political quarrels in the US" will stop poisoning Russian-US relations and affecting the situation in the world.
In the meantime, Bloomberg Politics reports the Russian government, anticipating more sanctions may be coming soon, is looking for ways to make its economy less reliant on the U.S. dollar.
The government is working on “reducing our economy’s dependence on the American currency, including through stimulating and the creation of mechanisms to shift foreign-trade settlements to national currencies,” according to a statement from the cabinet’s press service published on official news agencies Wednesday. The authorities have “no plans to give up dollar settlements, ban the circulation of the dollar or impose any other restrictions,” it said.
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Economy Minister Maxim Oreshkin told reporters the government is working on additional steps to make using national currencies more attractive and less costly. “First of all, these are stimulative measures to make these operations simple and convenient for companies and the population,” he said, noting that they require working with other countries to integrate financial infrastructure.
Last month, Andrey Kostin, head of state-owned VTB Bank, announced his own plan for “de-dollarization.” It would take about five years and include increased usage of local currencies in international trade, re-registering major companies in Russia and using local financial infrastructure for Eurobond issues, he said.
The government said its efforts aren’t driven by any “personal initiatives” but “reflect the strategic line of the government.”
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“The ruble doesn’t have the same liquidity on the global market that other reserve currencies do and not everyone will want to shift to rubles because that means extra costs,” former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin told reporters. “Countries with soft currencies such as the yuan may want to shift to payment in national currencies but I doubt the European Union will want to take payment from us in rubles.”
Dramatic progress on reducing reliance on the dollar will take at least 1.5-2 years, Deputy Finance Minister Alexey Moiseev said last month, though the government is trying to accelerate that, according to Tass.
“For some Russian companies it is natural -- for example, metals companies who sell to Europe. But for most it is very tricky - oil is generally traded in dollars,” said Liza Ermolenko, an economist at Barclays Capital in London. “This is definitely not a trend internationally, as most struggle to see it as something viable.”
Russia Lays Plans to Cut Dollar Use Amid Sanctions Fears (Bloomberg Politics)
Putin hopes Russian meddling ‘madness’ gripping US will end (TASS)