Russian Finance Ministry not to abandon dollar completely

Russia will have to use foreign currencies, including the dollar, in respect of goods pegged to global prices, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said in an interview with RBC.

"It will hardly be possible to completely do without the dollar. Our export goods are normally exchange-traded and their global prices are expressed in dollars. That is why we have to recalculate dollar prices in rubles for taxation. We will do so where it is possible to change for ruble-denominated prices. We will have to proceed from prices in foreign currencies for items linked to prices on global markets," Siluanov said.

"We are moving to that. For example, we have the cutoff prices of $300 per metric ton for the liquid steel excise and now 30,000 rubles are planned," the minister added, answering the question about the abandonment of the dollar in mineral extraction tax formulas.