MOSCOW, June 5 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's national currency will be freely exchanged outside the country in two to four years, a senior member of the lower house of parliament said Monday.
President Vladimir Putin said in his May 10 state of the nation address that work on making the national currency fully convertible should be completed by July 1, almost six months ahead of the original January 1, 2007 deadline.
Anatoly Aksakov, deputy chairman of the State Duma's committee for credit organizations and financial markets, said he was confident that Russians would soon be able to travel overseas without having to change their rubles into another currency before leaving.
"I think this will happen fairly quickly, quite possibly within two years, but certainly by 2010," he said.
However, Aksakov said the Central Bank's decision to lift reserve requirements for foreign currency operations as of July 1 did not mean procedures for changing rubles abroad would change overnight.
"This is unlikely to change things for the population, but this is a step toward simplifying currency exchange," he said.
Also from July 1, the Central Bank will lift the requirement for the obligatory use of special accounts for some foreign exchange operations.
The Duma deputy said that reaching full ruble convertibility would boost Russia's economic growth and the ruble's role in international transactions.
Aksakov said he was optimistic over the timeframe for these changes because some countries had already begun to create ruble reserves.
"For example, China has begun to diversify its gold and foreign currency reserves, increasing the ruble share, because it understands that this currency will strengthen," he said, though he added this was also down to increased Russian-Chinese trade.
