Russian Ruble lays claims on common currency role in Customs Union

Introduction of a common currency inside the Eurasian Economic Community comprising Kazakhstan, Russia and Belarus is irrelevant, RIA Novosti reports citing Russian President’s advisor Sergey Glazyev. “This issue has been discussed several times. There is no positive solution to it,” he said. Glazyev noted that the role of the Customs Union’s common currency will be given to Russian Ruble. “For example, Belarus has acknowledged ruble a reserve currency and a major part of the mutual trade with Minsk is done in rubles. If we exclude Dollar and Euro used for payments (they are mainly used in energy carriers deals), the weight of ruble in mutual trade of the three countries will make around 90 percent,” he said. According to the advisor, “stopping use of dollar and Euro as intermediate currencies” and creating own own system of inter-bank payments require making rubble a freely convertible currency, “ensuring direct quotations of our national currencies, abandoning the cross-course and creating a common payment system in the national currencies”. By January 1, 2015 Kazakhstan, Russia and Belarus are going to complete coding the international contracts that are the regulatory base of the Customs Union and the Common Economic Space and establish the Eurasian Economic Community. Before that time Kyrgyzstan is planning to enter the Customs Union. It might be followed by Tajikistan. According to some experts, including head of Kazakhstan National Bank Gregory Marchenko, common currency in the Eurasian Economic Community is unlikely to emerge before 2020. According to Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev, the economic union of three countries has to have a common currency different from Russian ruble. “I think that none of the national currencies, including the powerful ruble, can be used. There should be a new name and a new currency,” the President said in November 2011.