Russian lawmaker says considering Bitcoin payments for oil exports from ‘friendly’ nations

Battered with sanctions for initiating war against Ukraine, Russia is now mulling to accept Bitcoins as a payment for oil and gas exports.

In a news conference on Thursday, Russian lawmaker Pavel Zavalny reportedly said that it is willing to be flexible with payments when it comes to “friendly” countries such as China or Turkey.

Zavalny, who is also the chair of Russia’s Duma committee on energy, said that the national fiat currency of the buyer, as well as Bitcoin, were being considered as alternative ways to pay for Russia’s energy exports.

"We have been proposing to China for a long time to switch to settlements in national currencies for rubles andyuan," Zavalny said, according to the translation. \

"With Turkey, it will be lira and rubles." "You can also trade bitcoins," he added.

The price of the cryptocurrency reportedly spiked when the news reports of Zavalny’s remarks first came up yesterday.

The remarks come a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow will accept only rubles as payments for gas exports from “unfriendly nations”.

The list of countries includes the United States, European Union member states, Britain, Japan, Canada, Norway, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland and Ukraine.

Echoing Putin’s remarks, Zavalny said, “If they want to buy, let them pay either in hard currency, and this is gold for us, or pay as it is convenient for us, this is the national currency.”

Energy is the single most important source of income for Russia. In 2021, the oil and gas trade brought in $119 billion in revenue for the country, according toReuters.

Russia has been looking for an alternative payment system mechanism ever since it wasblocked from using the internationalSWIFT payment system.

Earlier this week, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde highlighted that the Russian private sector isusing crypto to bypass Western sanctions.

Watch |Ukraine-Russia conflict: Putin says Russia to only take gas payments in rubles

(With inputs from agencies)