Bitcoin Forum

(The American Vagabond) Whether in response to rising scorching tensions with the US, or simply to provide support for the ruble, on Tuesday Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed the government to approve legislation making the ruble the main currency of exchange at all Russian seaports by next year, RT reported citing the Kremlin website.

The head of Russian antitrust watchdog FAS Igor Artemyev, many services in Russian seaports are still priced in US dollars, even though such ports are state-owned. So, in order to “protect the interests” of dockworkers and their complyees with foreign currency obligations, the government was instructed to set a transition period before switching to ruble settlements.

The proposal to switch port tariffs to rubles was first proposed by Putin a year and a half ago, but it was mothballed only to pick up speed again in recent days.

Originally, the idea was rejected by large transport companies, which said they prefer to keep revenues in dollars and other foreign currencies due to sharp fluctuations on the volatile ruble. However, the Russian anti-trust watchdog said the decision would force foreigners to buy Russian currency, which would stabilize rates and be good for the ruble.

In 2016, Artemyev’s agency filed several lawsuits against the largest Russian port group NMTP.

”According to FAS, the group of companies set tariffs for transshipment in dollars and raised tariffs from January 2015 “without objective grounds.”

The watchdog ruled that NMTP abused its dominant position in the market and imposed a 9.74 billion rubles fine, or about $165 million at the current exchange rate. The decision was overturned by a court in Moscow in July this year.

While Russia’s stated motive for the unexpected redenomination of trade at some of its largest trading hubs has to do with domestic economic policies, there is speculation that the timing of this decision has been influenced by the recent diplomatic fallout between the US and Russia, the result of which would be an heightened demand for the ruble, especially since it is rather complicated to find alternative sources for Russia’s largest export by a wide margin: crude.

And while it is still early to discuss whether Moscow has launched the “Petrorouble”, Putin’s rejection of the Petrodollar in yet another aspect of economic life will raise quite a few eyebrows around the globe.

I think Russia and USA are playing games with us. Trying to make it seem like they are enemies to distract from the fact they hacked the election.

If Putin really decided to leave USD for its national commerce, this can pave a way for cryptocurrencies to become the assets which can be used by the real sector icluding industry and ports.

It's good anyways.

If Putin really decided to leave USD for its national commerce, this can pave a way for cryptocurrencies to become the assets which can be used by the real sector icluding industry and ports.

It's good anyways.

Lol! Putin does not know how to pretend that it can do harm to America. Any decision does not bring harm to Americans. It will eventually turn against Russia. Russian ports will lose customers. The Russian economy is very dependent on imports and therefore without the dollar will come the collapse. Putin is out of his mind. He hits on a tank with a dagger.

Agree with you,Putin is only showing strength to his people,imperialistic america and westerness sociaties are Russia enemys,nobody needs Russia ports,Russia will face serious economic problems as demand on oil will slow down,source of that news is not so much serious

AFAIK democrats refused investigators access to DNC servers to do forensics work to determine where the leak came from. All available evidence points to Seth Rich who worked for the DNC leaking the data to wikileaks/Julian Assange. DNC servers weren't hacked from an outside source like russia, the data came from someone who had access to the servers, it was an inside job. Seth Rich was mysteriously shot in the back shortly after the leak. Julian Assange says he has data and can confirm it was Seth Rich who was the leaker but nothing has come of that as far as I know.

"Putin hacked the elections" is a CNN media fabrication that has no evidence to support it. That's why the media pushed that campaign for more than six months with nothing to show for it. That's the impression I get anyway. Feel free to agree/disagree.