Bloomberg: The Kremlin Faces An Unexpected Problem
1- 11.11.2026, 12:42
- 3,462
Because of U.S. secondary sanctions.
Russia's attempt to replace the dollar with the Chinese yuan in international transactions never materialized due to the threat of secondary U.S. sanctions. According to Bloomberg, the yuan’s share of payments for Russian exports has halved from its mid-2024 peak to 22%.
According to the Bank of Russia, Russian companies now receive 69% of their export revenue in rubles when trading with Asian countries.
The shift to the national currency accelerated after Chinese banks began to fear U.S. sanctions and started restricting transactions with Russian counterparties.
After Washington expanded its sanctions authority in June 2024, payments from Russia began to be delayed, frozen, or returned to the senders.
As a result, businesses had to rely more heavily on intermediaries and route transfers through third countries. This increased the cost of transactions.
According to STT Logistics’ estimates, the total cost of cross-border payments with China—including commissions and intermediary fees—reaches 15–20% of the transaction amount.
These issues also affected payments to third countries. While Russia received more yuan from exports than it spent on payments for shipments from China until mid-2024, the situation changed by the end of 2025: currency outflows began to exceed inflows.
At the same time, Russian authorities portrayed the increase in the ruble’s share of export settlements as a strengthening of the national currency.
However, Sberbank’s first deputy chairman Alexander Vedyakhin previously acknowledged that payments between Russia and China continue to face disruptions.
Bank's name: Bank Millennium S.A.
Address: ul. Stanislawa Zaryna, 2A, 02-593, Warszawa
IBAN: PL97116022020000000216711123
SWIFT: BIGBPLPW
Name of the account holder: Fundacja “KARTA ‘97”
Purpose/title of payment: Donation for statuary aims
You can contact us by the e-mail [email protected]
