Ruble for whole caboodle: Russia phasing out US dollar in major arms deals with China

Russia’s Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation announced the start of negotiations with its Chinese counterparts in an effort to counter off Washington’s sanctions.

“We are holding negotiations with our Chinese partners. The most important thing is to avoid disparities in other sectors due to the transition to mutual settlements in national currencies,” the service’s chief Dmitry Shugayev told NTV.

He added: “However, the sanctions have another negative aspect, namely to intimidate our partners quite unceremoniously.”

Shugayev told TASS earlier that he did not see any threat from Washington’s punitive measures against contracts with China for the supply of Su-35 fighter jets and S-400 air defense systems.

S-400 is a long-range air defense system designed to protect strategically important sites. It is capable of destroying multiple aerial targets at an extremely long range of up to 400 kilometers (nearly 250 miles).

In September, the United States imposed sanctions on China due to the country’s purchase of 10 Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jets along with S-400s from Russia.

Following the introduction of US sanctions, Russian Trade Minister Denis Manturov said that Moscow was dropping the greenback in major arms deals and switching to the Russian ruble and the national currencies of its partners.

At the moment, China’s stock of orders for Russian military products exceeds $7 billion.

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