After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the CIS countries put forward the idea of establishing a unified ruble zone. However, with the introduction of national currencies by CIS member countries, the idea of unifying the ruble area was shelved, and CIS member countries began to settle accounts with rubles in their own currencies. In the early days of independence, the economic situation of CIS member countries generally deteriorated, and the value of local currencies was extremely unstable. Most of the trade between member countries is settled in kind or "hard currency", and the domestic economy is seriously dollarized. 1998 after the financial crisis, member countries stopped settling foreign trade in kind and began to settle in "hard currency". In the foreign trade of CIS countries, the US dollar has assumed the functions of value scale, means of payment and means of storage. In addition to the US dollar, the ruble also accounts for a large proportion in the foreign trade settlement and foreign exchange composition of CIS countries. However, the currencies of other countries in the Commonwealth of Independent States are difficult to become payment tools for foreign trade and cannot bear the functions of value scale and storage means. According to the data released by the Statistical Committee of the Commonwealth of Independent States, 20% of the total exports and 38% of the total imports among CIS member States are intra-regional trade. Before 2004 1 1 month, the trade volume between the two sides reached 95 billion US dollars. In fact, the conditions for settlement in local currency have been met. However, there are still many factors that restrict local currency settlement. First of all, although there is a high degree of trade dependence among CIS countries, there is little cooperation among member countries in the fields of credit and securities, loose financial ties among countries, imperfect financial infrastructure and system, lagging development of foreign exchange market and high degree of government intervention in the foreign exchange market. Secondly, the liquidity in the banking system of some member countries is too low to undertake the function of currency exchange. In contrast, the Russian ruble is the currency most likely to become a regional currency.

The ruble plays an important role in the foreign trade of CIS, second only to the US dollar. First of all, Russia's economic aggregate is large, accounting for more than 70% of the CIS region, and no country in the CIS region can match it. This is the decisive factor that the ruble may become the main currency of CIS. The ruble is one of the few currencies in CIS that can be traded as foreign currency on the exchange. Central banks publish the exchange rate quotations of US dollars, rubles and local currencies, while the exchange rates among other member countries are calculated by arbitrage. Secondly, Russia has taken a series of measures to improve the status of the ruble. First, it is forbidden to price goods in US dollars, euros or so-called "agreed units" in the domestic market, and the ruble is defined as the only value measure outside Russia through legislation, which creates favorable conditions for reducing the level of dollarization and improving the status of the ruble. Second, some export commodities began to be denominated in rubles. In June 5438 +2005 10, the Russian government decided to export weapons to other CIS member countries at the price of domestic rubles, which further strengthened the position of rubles in the CIS region.

(2) Local currency settlement among CIS countries

After entering the 2 1 century, especially after the liberalization of Russia's foreign exchange management system, the interest of CIS countries in using rubles in bilateral trade with Russia has increased significantly. Most enterprises and individuals engaged in foreign trade in CIS countries tend to accept rubles and deposit them in bank accounts. This is because there is no difficulty in converting rubles into dollars and the deposit interest rate of rubles is high. For various reasons, commercial banks in CIS countries are also willing to provide ruble loans to their customers, or operate ruble assets, or invest rubles in the highly liquid inter-bank credit market and corporate bond market. In 2009, it was more active to settle the trade between Russia and the member countries of Eurasian Economic Community with rubles. In the payment business between these countries, the ruble is squeezing out dollars. In 2009, the settlement amount in rubles reached the scale equivalent to US$ 654.38+0.78 billion, accounting for about 48% of the total payment made by the member countries of the Eurasian Economic Community. As can be seen from table 1, about 50% of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan are settled in rubles. However, it is undeniable that the US dollar is still the most important settlement currency besides the ruble. In addition, the ruble is not the most important settlement currency among members of Eurasian economic entities except Russia. For example, in the settlement of Kazakhstan and Belarus, the ruble accounts for about 25% and the US dollar accounts for 58%; In the settlement between Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, rubles account for 3% and US dollars account for 88%; In the settlement between Kazakhstan and Tajikistan, the ruble only accounts for 0.5% and the US dollar accounts for 99%. This shows that, to a certain extent, the ruble can become the settlement currency between Russia and other countries, but without Russia's participation, other CIS countries still tend to use US dollars for settlement.

In addition, the proportion of CIS countries using local currency in foreign trade settlement is very low. For example, although Kazakh tenge, Belarusian rouble and Ukrainian Grivner play a certain role in the settlement of foreign trade with Russia, their proportion is very low, less than 2%. In the settlement of foreign trade with the member countries of the Eurasian Economic Community, the proportion of using tenge is only 1%, which is equivalent to10.8 billion US dollars. In the foreign trade settlement with the member countries of Eurasian Economic Community, the currency of Belarus only accounts for 0.5%, which is about 65,438 USD+700 million.

(c) Problems faced by the ruble as the settlement currency of CIS

As mentioned above, the status of the ruble in the CIS countries is subject to many restrictions. First of all, political factors affect the use of rubles in CIS countries. Currency is a symbol of national sovereignty. After gaining independence, CIS countries regarded their currencies as a symbol of sovereign independence and refused to use roubles. Secondly, any currency needs enough commodities as a guarantee, and whether the ruble can be widely accepted depends on its purchasing power. In addition, energy accounts for a considerable proportion of Russia's exports to CIS countries. Traditionally, these products are priced and settled in US dollars. The ruble is neither a measure of value nor a means of payment for energy trade, which is not conducive to the ruble becoming a regional currency. Settlement currency and contract price are two different concepts. In order to lock in the contract price in foreign trade activities, enterprises in CIS countries still tend to price in dollars or euros. This shows that the trust of foreign trade entities in the stability of the ruble exchange rate is still insufficient. In addition, CIS countries not only carry out economic and trade activities with Russia, but also carry out extensive economic and trade activities with many non-CIS countries, requiring a large number of freely convertible currencies.