Italian authorities have cited the possible use of such a scheme to avoid sanctions as justification for blocking ruble payments.
Italy has stopped accepting Russian rubles as payment for goods exported to the Russian Federation. This was announced by the head of the Italian-Russian Chamber of Commerce (IRTC), Ferdinando Pelazzo, The Moscow Times wrote.
According to him, this decision was made by the Italian Financial Security Committee, which unites several ministries.
“We started to make agreements, everything was fine, the conditions were acceptable But then the Committee informed us that it did not recommend this method,” said Pelazzo.
Italian authorities have cited the possible use of such a scheme to avoid sanctions as justification for blocking ruble payments. Therefore, the mechanism for adjustments in rubles, which was launched in February, only worked for about two months.
According to the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, last year Russian importers paid in rubles for 30% of all goods delivered from abroad. At the same time, the share of the ruble in payment for imports from Europe reached 47.9%.
In total, goods worth $78.5 billion were imported from European countries to Russia last year. Compared to the first year of a full-scale war against Ukraine, European imports to the Russian Federation fell by 12.3%, and compared to 2021 – by a quarter.
At the same time, imports to Russia from the G7 countries – the USA, Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Japan and Canada – last year fell to their lowest level in two decades. Each month, the G7 countries supplied goods worth less than $2 billion to the Russian Federation, although in 2017–2019 it amounted to about $5 billion per month.
It was previously reported that several Chinese banks, including China’s largest ICBC, as well as China Citic Bank, Industrial Bank and Bank of Taizhou, have stopped accepting payments in yuan from Russia.
Source: korrespondent
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