Four Countries Offer Russia to Use Barter System to Avoid Dollar

Iran, Turkey, India, and China have suggested using the barter system in the food industry with Russia to avoid transactions in dollars, Russian agricultural watchdog aide Alexei Alekseyenko said Wednesday.

SHARM EL-SHEIKH (Sputnik) – Alekseyenko said that Iran had offered the idea of exchanging Russian grain for milk products, fish, and meat, and Turkey had also suggested meat, milk products, fish, and incubated eggs.

“We have been getting suggestions from various countries that accounts should be handled in national currencies, or even using mutual goods, that is the barter system. We’ve had negotiations in Tehran, Ankara, New Delhi, Beijing, and so forth,” Alekseyenko said during an international grains trade conference.

It comes as Russia is considering conducting transactions in national currencies with India, South Africa, Brazil, Argentina, Indonesia, Vietnam, Iran and Egypt in order to boost mutual trade and reduce dependence on the dollar.

Such an agreement has already been reached with China. The central banks of both countries struck a deal allowing bilateral trade in the ruble and the yuan, as well as in a freely convertible currency.

In late 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow was leaving the "dollar dictatorship," focusing on using other currencies in trade.