Enlarge / The sun sets beyond an oil pumping unit, also known as a pumping jack, at a drilling site operated by Tatneft OAO near Almetyevsk, Russia. (credit: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg)
Russia’s economy is in shambles, and the value of the ruble has plummeted as the country finds itself increasingly isolated from global trade in the wake of its war on Ukraine. The country is even having a hard time finding buyers for its oil, in part because the global oil market is dominated by the US dollar.
Russia’s difficulty in selling its oil might be why it is considering alternative payment methods, including bitcoin. Pavel Zavalny, chair of the State Duma’s committee on energy, floated the idea at a press conference this week, the BBC reported.
“We have been proposing to China for a long time to switch to settlements in national currencies for rubles and yuan. With Turkey, it will be lira and rubles,” Zavalny said. “You can also trade bitcoins.”
