Leverage: ‘Sanctions will make Russia use rouble’

EU leaders meet next week to discuss steps to target Russian economy if Ukraine’s presidential election is disrupted.

MOSCOW: Western sanctions will galvanise Russia into using the rouble as a currency for international trade, the country’s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said in an interview published on Saturday. “Trading for roubles - this is a definite priority,” Medvedev said. “This, in fact, should ultimately move the rouble from the cohort of freely convertible currencies into the ranks of reserve currencies.” He was speaking in an interview recorded for the television programme “Vesti on Saturday with Sergey Brilev”, shown on the Rossiya channel and published on the government’s website. In recent weeks officials have said the government is considering making it obligatory for state-owned companies to receive payment for key exports in roubles, rather than in dollars as at present. EU leaders meet next week to discuss steps that could be taken to target broader sectors of the Russian economy if Ukraine’s presidential election on Sunday is disrupted.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 25^th, 2014.

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