Western sanctions are ‘pushing Russia towards China’
By Winnie Agbonlahor on 21/04/2016 | Updated on 24/09/2020
The Russian Parliament Building
Western sanctions are pushing Russia to explore deeper financial links with China, Moscow’s deputy finance minister has said.
Alexei Moiseev said Russia expected to sign a deal this year linking China’s national electronic payment network into its own soon-to-be-launched credit card system as part of measures aimed at reducing reliance on the west.
The move is just one of a series of new measures aimed at integrating Chinese and Russian financial markets being discussed by both countries.
These, Moiseev said, are being made more urgent by western sanctions on Russia.
The motivation for closer ties with China “has increased significantly,” Mr Moiseev told the Financial Times newspaper.
“We are driven by outside [events] to develop bilateral financial links.”
While both Visa and MasterCard continue to operate in Russia, they are banned from doing business with two Russian banks accused by the US of close links to the Kremlin.
Moiseev added: “The very possibility that Russian banks can be switched off from plastic cards have of course pushed us to make steps.”
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About Winnie Agbonlahor
Winnie is news editor of Global Government Forum. She previously reported for Civil Service World - the trade magazine for senior UK government officials. Originally from Germany, Winnie first came to the UK in 2006 to study a BA in Journalism & Russian at the University of Sheffield. She is bilingual in English and German, and, after spending an academic year abroad in Russia and reporting for the Moscow Times, Winnie also speaks Russian fluently.
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