Devaluation hurts ruble's position in Customs Union settlements - Kudrin
MOSCOW. Dec 22 (Interfax) - The economic crisis is weakening the position of the Russian ruble in trade with the other Customs Union member states, Civil Initiatives Committee Chairman Alexei Kudrin said.
"The current crisis complicates the operation of the Customs Union. This stems from exchange rate problems. It alters the flow of goods, reduces imports to Russia," Kudrin said at a press conference at Interfax's central office on Monday.
"I am not talking about sanctions that necessitated restricting imports to Russia of certain goods without adequate control measures at the customs border on the parts of Belarus and Kazakhstan. This also, I believe, has degraded the position and operation of the Customs Union and triggered such trade wars, first and foremost with Belarus, concerning goods that transit them to Russian territory," Kudrin said.
Belarus is now saying it would prefer to transact trade with Russia in dollars, Kudrin said. "The fact is that Belarus had nearly all its goods turnover with Russia in [Russian] rubles. When we said that the ruble should be used all the more extensively in settlements, Belarus for the most part did that. For Belarus, the ruble is convertible, that is, no additional operations need to be conducted. These are very close trade relations: the ruble was a very normal currency for our relations," Kudrin said.
"That is now being undermined and we are seeing a deterioration in the position of the ruble in settlements with our traditional partners. Of course, that worsens the position of the ruble in settlements with everyone, whether it's China or some other country," he said.