{"id":10469,"date":"2022-03-24T16:01:48","date_gmt":"2022-03-24T16:01:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ci029cf5168000247a"},"modified":"2025-10-01T13:10:37","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T18:10:37","slug":"russia-open-to-sell-gas-for-bitcoin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/markets\/russia-open-to-sell-gas-for-bitcoin","title":{"rendered":"Russia Is Open To Selling Natural Gas For Bitcoin"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Russia is open to accepting bitcoin for its natural resources exports, the chairman of the country\u2019s Congressional energy committee, Pavel Zavalny, said in a press conference on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Zavalny explained that Russia is open to accepting different currencies for its exports, beginning with natural gas, depending on the buyer\u2019s preferred method of payment. However, the chairman said terms will depend on the importing country\u2019s foreign relations status with Russia.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it comes to our \u2018friendly\u2019 countries, like China or Turkey, which don\u2019t pressure us, then we have been offering them for a while to switch payments to national currencies, like rubles and yuan,\u201d Zavalny said during the press conference<\/a>. \u201cWith Turkey, it can be lira and rubles. So there can be a variety of currencies, and that\u2019s a standard practice. If they want bitcoin, we will trade in bitcoin.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zavalny\u2019s statement comes on the heels of President Vladimir Putin\u2019s comments on Wednesday demanding<\/a> that \u2018unfriendly\u2019 countries pay for Russian gas in rubles. Putin\u2019s message was clear, but it is unclear<\/a> whether Russia can unilaterally change existing contracts agreed upon in euros.<\/p>\n

The State Duma\u2019s energy committee chair echoed Putin\u2019s decision while adding that the country should also accept gold.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we exchange with Western countries\u2026they should pay in hard money,\u201d Zavalny said. \u201cAnd hard money is gold, or they must pay in currencies which are convenient for us, and that is the national currency \u2013 ruble. That relates to our \u2018unfriendly\u2019 countries.\u201d<\/p>\n

Russia being open to accepting bitcoin shift the tide as Putin last year had dismissed the possibility in an interview at the Russian Energy Week event in Moscow.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe that it has value,\u201d Putin said at the time<\/a>, referring to Bitcoin. \u201cBut I don\u2019t believe it can be used in the oil trade.\u201d<\/p>\n

The current size of the Bitcoin market and its liquidity do pose questions as to whether the peer-to-peer currency could be used widely by countries in international trade at this moment. <\/p>\n

However, by being open to the possibility and eventually conducting pilot trades with interested parties, Russia could set the stage for an upcoming trend where nations choose to transact in the stateless, global monetary system.<\/p>\n

\u2013 With assistance by Anastasia Iurciac.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Russia can trade with \u2018friendly\u2019 countries in national currencies or bitcoin, the chairman of the State Duma committee on energy said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2572,"featured_media":6795,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[2474,93,404],"class_list":{"0":"post-10469","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-markets","8":"tag-gas","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-russia"},"author_data":{"id":2572,"name":"Namcios","nicename":"namcios","avatar_url":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/pfp-96x96.png"},"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/russias-crypto-winter-shows-signs-of-a-thaw-in-saint-petersburg.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2572"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}