The head of the Russian parliamentary committee on energy, Pavel Zavalny on Thursday said that Russia is considering accepting Bitcoin, alongside fiat currencies, as payment for its oil and gas exports.
Russia willing to be more flexible with payment options
In a videotaped news conference on Thursday, the chair of Russia’s Duma Committee on energy said that when it comes to “friendly” countries such as China or Turkey, Russia was willing to be more flexible with payment options.
Instead of using the US Dollar, the minister said countries could possibly begin paying for energy in Russian Rubles, the Chinese Yuan, Turkish Lira, or even Bitcoin.
As per Russian media house RBC, the chair had stated at a 24 March press conference that he and representatives from China and Turkey had been discussing changes to preferred settlement currencies for its biggest export.
“We have been proposing to China for a long time to switch to settlements in national currencies of rubles and yuan. With Turkey, it will be lira and rubles. The set of currencies can be different, and this is normal practice. If there are Bitcoins, we will trade Bitcoins.”
He further stated that “unfriendly countries” could pay for their oil in Rubles or gold. Nevertheless, it still remains unclear if Russia can change the terms of existing contracts with countries that pay in Euros or the US Dollar.
Energy, single-handedly, is the most important commodity that Russia exports. In fact, it is a key energy source in Europe and other countries and is finding difficult to replace. As per reports, the oil and gas trade provided $119 billion in revenue for Russia last year.
Post-Zavalny’s remarks, BTC did move up the charts. The king-coin was was up by about 3% in the day’s trade, and was seen exchanging hands at $44,000 for the first time since a brief price spike in early March.
Alongside, the Luna Foundation bought another 2,925 Bitcoin worth $125 million to back UST stablecoin. And the said purchase too, per people from the community, aided the Bitcoin price pump.