Stanislau Bahdankevich: It is Ermakova, not Miasnikovich who should deal with currency operations

Either Miasnikovich makes statements as an independent politician, which is hard to believe, or he didn’t quite understand what he said regarding unification of Russia’s and Belarus’ payment systems.

It seems that Prime Minister Miasnikovich decided to reanimate the idea of changing the Union State of Belarus and Russia to single currency, which, according to Kremlin’s vision, can only be Russian ruble. Belarus and Russia should work on unification of national payment systems, said Prime Minister at the session of the Council of Ministers of the Union State of Belarus and Russia on October 21.

“I believe that in the modern situation for the sake of expanding our mutual Russian-Belarusian trade and investment cooperation it is necessary to use the Russian ruble more broadly in transactions. I think it is an objective reality that we have to reckon with,” said Mikhail Miasnikovich.

- His words are not quite clear, - noted Stanislau Bahdankevich, former head of the National Bank, commenting upon the situation to the “EuroBelarus” Information Service. – It is already today that joint sessions of the National Bank of Belarus and Central Bank of Russia are held, some common ways within the frames of the so-called Union State are coordinated, but national currencies are preserved, calculations are made in dollars and contracts are signed in dollars – Russian ruble is not used. I don’t think that Miasnikovich meant the rejection of national Belarusan currency, as recently at the press conference for Russia journalists Aliaksandr Lukashenka stated that he wouldn’t fall to Central Bank of Russia to ask for money to pay salaries and pensions to Belarusans. Is it possible that Miasnikovich outwent Lukashenka’s policy and pursues his own line? It is unbelievable.

Bahdankevich “is even more puzzled with Miasnikovich’s words, if we consider the current situation with the Russian currency”. Let us recall that Russian ruble continued to lose value, dipping to RUR 41.79 to the dollar and RUR 52.91 to the euro on October 24, while the dollar had gained 7 kopeks against the ruble and the euro had increased by 11 kopeks to RUR 52.91at the Moscow Stock Exchange compared with the previous day’s closing level.

- As to the payments in Russian currency, they might even be profitable for Belarus now, when Russian ruble is being depreciated. Even the latest loan was made in rubles, not in dollars; so why not pay in Russian rubles for oil, gas, and debts.

Stanislau Bahdankevich emphasized, that he prefers “the statement of National Bank Chairperson Nadezhda Ermakova, who thinks that national currency shouldn’t be depreciated in step with the depreciation of the Russian ruble”.

- This is a right position. Ruble doesn’t mean that much in our economic ties with Russia, as, I will repeat, the most significant accounts and contracts are done in US Dollars. To yield sovereignty and completely turn to the Russian currency would be another question. As to Miasnikovich’s statement – he said that without really understanding what he said.