Russia is preparing an investment in Bitcoin to replace the US dollar as a reserve currency in a bid to tackle US sanctions, according to a Russian economist with close ties to the Kremlin.
Russia impacting the US
Vladislav Ginko, an economist at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, a state-funded institution, said the government is taking steps to minimise the impact of US sanctions that have hit the Russian rouble by replacing some of its US dollar reserves with the world’s most popular cryptocurrency.
US sanctions on Russia over the past year have come after the poisoning of former Russian military officer Sergei Skripal. Mr Ginko believes Russia’s de-dollarisation decision is fundamentally a move to “protect its national interests” due to a possible interruption of “US nominated payments flows for Russian oil and gas” and claims investment could be as much as $10bn (£7.8bn).
Cryptocurrencies, an interest for Putin
Cryptocurrencies have seen a surge of interest in Russia, with President Vladimir Putin expressing interest in the digital assets in recent months. Mr Ginko believes Bitcoin and the wider cryptocurrency industry now account for 8pc of Russia’s GDP, and investment to bolster the country’s reserves with Bitcoin could start as soon as February.
“[The] Russian government is about to make a step to start diversifying financial reserves into Bitcoin since Russia [is] forced by US sanctions to dump US Treasury bonds and [take] back US dollars,” Mr Ginko said.
“These sanctions and the will to adopt modern financial technologies lead Russia to the way of investing its reserves into Bitcoin.”
The Central Bank of Russia is yet to publish official plans, but said in a statement to The Daily Telegraph that it “publishes information on the foreign assets management with a six-month lag”. The country has shown signs of de-dollarisation by boosting its holdings of the euro, Chinese renminbi and Japanese yen.
Also published on Medium.