Russia Open To Take Payments For Energy Exports In Bitcoin

Following the numerous sanctions slammed on Russia by the United States and Europe, the country disclosed through its Chairman of the Congressional Energy Committee, Pavel Zavalny, that it is open to accepting bitcoin (BTC) payments for its natural gas and energy exports.

According to an interview today, Zavalny noted that Russia will stop accepting payments in the United States Dollars (USD) and Euro (EUR) because both fiat currencies are currently regarded as candy wrappers in the country.

“Now that USD/EUR has become a trashed candy wrapper, we prefer hard money like Gold or Money of allies like Yuan or TRY & if it‘s Bitcoin then it’s OK too. When it comes to our ‘friendly’ countries, like China or Turkey, which don‘t pressure us, then we have been offering them for a while to switch payments to national currencies, like rubles and yuan, With Turkey, it can be lira and rubles. So there can be a variety of currencies, and that’s a standard practice. If they want bitcoin, we will trade in bitcoin.”

Russia Fights Back Sanctions

The announcement comes less than two days after President Vladimir Putin, in his quest to force the world to re-engage with the country, ordered that gas contracts with “unfriendly nations” like the U.S. should be settled in the ruble.

President Putin noted in the order that fiats like the USD and EUR are compromised following the sanctions slammed on Russia.

It is worth noting that Russia is the major gas supplier to European nations, which gets about 40% of the natural resources from the country.

Following the move by Russia to discontinue USD and EUR payments, while favoring Bitcoin and gold, European nations and the U.S. could be forced to reconsider the sanctions slammed on the country, since they are heavily reliant on its natural gas.

Meanwhile, several experts noted that Russia could turn to Bitcoin in a bid to evade sanctions, a move tipped to be disastrous for the worlds largest cryptocurrency.