Russian ruble is about to rise? As the Russian-Ukraine war continued, Western countries led by the United States imposed sanctions on Russia in various ways, especially on Russia's ruble . The Russian ruble depreciated, European countries sold large quantities of rubles, and frozen their foreign exchange reserves on a large scale. The ruble depreciated from around 80 before the war, when the depreciation rate was the highest, the US dollar against the ruble even reached 1:150. In this process, the ruble depreciated nearly double. With the continuous depreciation of the Russian ruble, the whole world believes that Russia may not be able to hold on to this currency war .
Unexpectedly, not long ago, Russia announced that natural gas settlement for some "unfriendly countries" of Europe will be settled by rubles. As soon as this big news came out, European countries that originally relied on Russian natural gas imports were a heavy blow. At this time, countries that were selling rubles in large quantities would need to buy rubles again if they wanted to continue to buy Russian natural gas, which brought rubles back to the level of 80 before the war. So, what is the strategic significance of Russia's natural gas exports to settle in rubles?
We know that as the main hegemonic country, the United States is in an absolute leading position in both military and economic terms. With the rise of the United States' hegemony around the world, the US dollar has also occupied an absolute hegemony in the world's monetary system. From the initial pegging of the US dollar to the gold, and then to the later pegging of the US dollar to the oil, most countries around the world use US dollar when conducting foreign trade transactions, which further encourages the US dollar to lead.
Due to the impact of the epidemic, the US economy has suffered a severe impact. The domestic economic situation in the United States is sluggish, and a serious economic crisis has occurred. In order to reverse the unfavorable domestic economic situation, the United States has begun to print a large amount of money since 2021, trying to ease the increasingly sluggish domestic economic situation through a large amount of US dollars. Of course, although the United States has been printing US dollars in a big way, the countries that are suffering are still countries that have close economic relations with the United States. At this time, Japan, India and some major EU countries became the targets of the US dollar. It was precisely through the massive printing of money that the United States caused a monetary deficit and gradually harvested other countries, which stabilized the dominance of the US dollar. Of course, a series of actions by the United States have also accelerated the collapse of the US dollar monetary system to a certain extent, seriously affecting the US dollar's currency credit .
As the Russian-Ukraine war continues, Western countries led by the United States impose sanctions on Russia in all aspects. In order to prevent the depreciation of the ruble from causing a domestic economic collapse and at the same time improve the ruble's international competitiveness, Russia announced that it would use ruble to settle currency for natural gas supply to "unfriendly countries" such as the United States and EU member states. Obviously, the move proposed by Russia is a powerful counterattack against Western countries' financial sanctions on Russia. So, can Russia's move really work?
The reason why Russia dares to launch this measure against the "unfriendly countries" in the West is certainly sure that this measure can be implemented successfully. It is understood that European countries depend on Russian natural gas as high as 40%, depend on oil as much as 27%, and depend on coal as much as 46%. In order to resist Russia's use of ruble to settle natural gas to control European countries, the United States decided to supply up to 15 billion cubic meters of LNG to the EU. It is understood that in 2021, EU countries will import as much as 136 billion cubic meters of natural gas through LNG and pipeline transportation. The additional natural gas supply to the EU is only about one-tenth of the natural gas purchased by EU countries, which is obviously difficult to meet the demand for natural gas resources of EU countries.
So, is Russia's introduction of this strategy temporary or premeditated? It was learned online that on March 18, relevant Russian leaders made a long speech when they attended an event in Moscow.In his speech, Russia has revealed that financial reserves are easily stolen and will gradually be converted from paper and digital assets into raw materials, food, gold, land and other physical assets in . Immediately afterwards, Russia announced that the natural gas supplied to "unfriendly countries" would be settled in rubles. It can be seen that Russia had already planned to link natural gas to rubles a long time ago. Once this measure is successfully implemented, it will be an epoch-making change. This is also the first time in the world that in addition to the US dollar, it adopts its own currency for settlement, which will impact the hegemony of the US dollar in the world to a certain extent.
As Russia adopts rubles to settle with some "unfriendly countries" of the EU, it has improved the international competitiveness of the rubles to a certain extent. Of course, Russia's move has also strengthened China's natural gas cooperation with Russia to a certain extent. When China imports Russian natural gas, in addition to using rubles for settlement, it can also use RMB for settlement, which to a certain extent also improves the international competitiveness of the RMB. At the same time, Russia's move also reminds our country of mind. What do you think about the natural gas that Russia uses rubles for settlement? Leave a message in the comment area.
