Russia’s Putin questions the necessity for greenback foreign exchange reserves, touts bitcoin

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday questioned the necessity to maintain state reserves in foreign currency since they may simply be confiscated for political causes, saying that home funding of such reserves was extra engaging.

Western international locations froze about $300 billion of Russian reserves, accrued from windfall power revenues, initially of the Ukraine battle in 2022. Discussions are ongoing amongst G7 international locations on how these funds could possibly be used to assist Ukraine.

“A legit query: why accumulate reserves if they are often misplaced so simply?” Putin mentioned in remarks to an funding convention. He steered that funding of state financial savings into infrastructure, logistics, science and schooling was extra dependable than holding them in overseas property.

Putin mentioned the present U.S. administration was undermining the position of the U.S greenback because the reserve foreign money within the world financial system through the use of it for political functions, forcing many international locations to show to various property, together with cryptocurrencies.

“For instance, bitcoin, who can prohibit it? Nobody,” Putin mentioned. He added that growth of recent fee applied sciences was inevitable, resulting from their decrease prices and reliability.