With the annexation of Crimea by Russia at the beginning of 20 14 and the actual control of Donbass region in eastern Ukraine, Russia's relations with the United States and the European Union deteriorated sharply and were severely sanctioned by the United States and the European Union, which brought a fatal blow to Russia's economy so far. As a weak country, one of Russia's major countermeasures is to resolutely dollarize.
How did Russia achieve dollarization? There are mainly the following ways:
First, it has greatly changed the structure of Russia's foreign exchange reserves-almost polished US Treasury bonds, and greatly increased the reserves of other currencies such as euro, RMB, British pound and Japanese yen.
Russia was once a big holder of US Treasury bonds and ranked among the top ten customers of US debt. At its peak, Russia held more than US$ 654.38+07 billion in US Treasury bonds, accounting for more than 4% of foreign investors' US debt, while the proportion of Russian foreign exchange reserves was close to 40%. It can be said that American debt was once Russia's most important foreign exchange reserve.
Because of geopolitical conflicts, US-Russian relations have fallen to the bottom, and the United States has frequently imposed sanctions on Russia, which has dealt a great blow to the Russian economy and forced Russia to embark on the road of dollarization. Starting from 20 14, Russia continued to sell American debt:
As of May 20 17, the US debt held by Russia has dropped from170 billion US dollars to108.7 billion US dollars, accounting for 32.3% of Russia's foreign exchange reserves. As of March 20 18, the US debt held by Russia dropped to 96 10 billion US dollars. In the following two months, Russia threw out American debt again. As of May, 20 18, the US debt held by Russia was only14.9 billion US dollars. As of May 20 19, the US debt held by Russia was only $65,438+0,265,438+36 million. In June, the US debt held by Russia was reduced again, leaving only120.24 million US dollars. By the month of 20 19, 1 1, Russia held only 10697 billion US dollars in US debt. Russia sold more than 95% of American debt.
At the same time, Russia has greatly increased the reserves of other currencies. As of March 3 1 2,065,438, the euro has replaced the US dollar as the main force of Russia's foreign exchange reserves, accounting for 30.3%, while the proportion of RMB has risen to 14.2%, and the proportion of British pound is 6.6%.
The proportion of trade between Russia and the EU settled in euros and rubles is rising, while the proportion of US dollars is declining-the proportion of euros is rising to 42.3%, and the proportion of US dollars is falling to 46.6%. The proportion of Russian exports to India settled in rubles reached 75%.
In Russian-Chinese trade, while reducing the proportion of settlement in US dollars, the proportion of settlement in euros, roubles and RMB keeps rising, exceeding that in US dollars: the proportion of settlement in euros rises from 0.7% at the beginning of 20 18 to 37.6%, that in roubles rises to 9.6%, that in RMB rises to 7. 1%, and that in US dollars falls from 87% to 45.
China, Russia, India, Brazil and South Africa are cooperating to build BRICS Pay, a cross-border payment system for BRICS countries, which has been piloted in South Africa. In addition, Russia is still developing a domestic payment system-financial information transfer system, which has been tested in Russian oil giant Rostec, technology giant and other large Russian enterprises, and will be used in the inter-bank cash transfer service of Russian enterprises, thus skipping the SWIFT system controlled by the United States.
Is it worthwhile for Russia to go dollarization so resolutely? Of course it is worth it! In addition to minimizing the damage of U.S. sanctions against Russia and the impact on Russia's economy, we can also reduce our dependence on the US dollar and the SWIFT system and better defend our financial sovereignty, which is of vital importance to Russia.