Reuters - Russia is using cryptocurrencies in oil trading with China and India to circumvent Western sanctions, according to four sources with direct knowledge of the matter.
Although Russia publicly encourages the use of cryptocurrencies and passed a law last summer allowing payments in digital currency in international trade, its use in oil trading in the country has not been previously reported.
Russian oil companies use bitcoin, ether and Tether to facilitate the conversion of Chinese yuan and Indian rupees into Russian rubles, the sources said, adding that this is a small but growing part of Russia's total oil trade, which, according to the International Energy Agency, is worth $192 billion.
The sources were not specified due to the sensitivity of the issue. Cryptocurrencies have already helped countries under U.S. sanctions, such as Iran and Venezuela, maintain their economies while avoiding the use of the dollar, the main currency for operations on the global oil market.
Russia took this step based on the experience of Venezuela, which began using cryptocurrencies when exporting crude oil and fuel after Washington reimposed sanctions.
Russia has created many systems, and USDT (Tether) is just one of them, said a fifth source, a researcher at a company that tracks the use of cryptocurrencies to circumvent sanctions, who asked not to be named due to a non-disclosure agreement.
The Central Bank of Russia did not respond to a request for comment. Last year, it said that payment delays due to sanctions had become a serious problem for the Russian economy.
US President Donald Trump is seeking to improve relations with Russia by seeking an end to the war in Ukraine, but it is unclear whether sanctions will be lifted.
The Reuters news agency reported that the White House is developing options for easing sanctions, but on March 7, Trump published a message saying that he was seriously considering the possibility of imposing additional sanctions on Russia.
Cryptocurrency will continue to be used in Russian oil trading, one of the four sources said, even if sanctions are lifted and the dollar can be used again. It is a convenient tool that helps to perform operations faster, they added.
As an example of how trading works, a Chinese buyer of Russian oil transfers money to a trading company acting as an intermediary in yuan to an offshore account, two sources with knowledge of the transactions said.
The intermediary then converts this money into cryptocurrency and transfers it to another wallet, and from there it is sent to a third wallet in Russia and converted into rubles. Moreover, the payment currency itself can change in the process from BTC to ETH, then to USDT.
According to one of the sources advising the Kremlin, cryptocurrencies are one of the many ways to solve payment problems. An analysis conducted by the Royal United Services Institute of Great Britain and the Center for Information Resilience also confirms this point of view.
The key information here is the statement of the source that even if the United States lifts sanctions, Russia will continue to increase its turnover in the cryptocurrency. Because it's faster, cheaper, and more reliable.
The United States needlessly let the genie out of the bottle by imposing sanctions against Russia, disconnecting it from its own payment systems in dollars. Experience has shown that Russia, like Venezuela, China or India, likes cryptocurrencies more.
.jpeg)
.png)
.jpg)
.jpeg)
.png)
.png)
.jpeg)
.jpg)
