Russia’s Finance Ministry is working on stablecoin platforms to avoid cross-border dollar settlement: Tass

Russia’s finance ministry is looking to stablecoins to avoid international payment rails denominated in the U.S. dollar and euro, according to state media.

The September 6 report from state-owned news outlet Tass cites Aleksey Moiseyev, Russia’s deputy minister of finance, speaking at a conference in Vladivostok. 

“We are working with a whole range of countries to create new two-sided platforms without using dollars or euros,” said Moiseyev. “Stablecoins can be tied to some generally accepted instrument like, for example, gold, whose value is understood and appreciable for all parties.”

Russia has been coping with intensifying sanctions from the U.S. and Europe for the better part of a decade. In February, shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, the U.S. and EU governments agreed to remove certain Russian banks from SWIFT, the primary global settlement layer. The country has explored many steps to get around this, including increasing the role of the ruble and yuan in its hydrocarbon exports and working to digitize the ruble. To date these efforts have had limited success, however. 

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