The member states of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) – Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia – are considering creating a digital currency in 2020 or 2021, the Russian deputy finance minister Alexei Moiseev stated last week.
Such a move is “inevitable,” the TASS news agency quoted Moiseev as saying, because of increasing difficulties in trade and exchange calculations and due to Western sanctions which affect “a growing number of organizations.”
While Russia is exposed to the threat of additional sanctions, the response “must be a reliable international payment systems independent from the US dollar.”
Even certain states outside the EAEU have expressed interest in such a project, said Moiseev, since they are important trade partners of the EAEU member states.
The EAEU-backed single currency could be similar to the European Currency Unit (ECU), the basket of the currencies of the European Community member states in use between 1979 and 1999.
The project will most likely be implemented without using blockchain technology, Moiseev added.
Discussions between the EAEU member states will be held all along 2019 and perhaps even 2020, the deputy minister indicated.
Since the Ukrainian crisis in 2014, Russia has been actively seeking to reduce its dependence on Western-dominated international financial systems. A key part of this strategy has been the introduction of the MIR national payment card. No less than 58 million online transactions were performed using MIR cards during the first eight month of this year.
