Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Aleksandr Pankin, said something remarkable today. In an interview he stated that Russia plans to replace their US dollar reserves with other assets in the near future, which may include digital assets.
Russia and crypto
Pankin explicitly mentions the fact that he cannot rule out that Russia will eventually opt for digital assets as a reserve. He does indicate, however, that this can only be achieved in the long term. So for the time being, we don’t have to prepare for a Russia that bitcoin (BTC) has on the balance sheet.
“It is possible to replace the US dollar with other currencies, both national and regional, as well as some long-term digital assets”
According to Pankin, such a plan would also require a significant shift in sentiment towards digital assets within the Russian government. In the meantime, it seems that the Russian authorities are becoming more and more positive about the crypto industry.
Positive sentiment
For example, the Russian president Vladimir Putin recently indicated that he valued cryptocurrencies did see. However, he thought it was too early to use crypto in, for example, energy trading.
Putin stated that crypto could function very well as a unit of account in the future, but that they are still too unstable at the moment. According to the Russian president, the government there would closely monitor developments.
In addition, the Deputy Minister of Finance of Russia know that the country has no plans to ban crypto trading as recently China did.
It is clear that any adoption of the crypto ecosystem by the Russian government will take some time. Nevertheless, the voices from various authorities in the country can be called downright positive.
The future will show whether Russia will indeed take digital assets to replace the US dollar on its balance sheet in due course and how the world of crypto will manifest itself in the country.