The shift to payments in mutual trade between Turkey and Russia in rubles and later in Turkish liras will allow protecting Turkey’s foreign currency reserves, the country's newspaper Milliyet reported on Monday.
The decision to shift to rubles in mutual settlements made during the talks between presidents of Turkey and Russia, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Vladimir Putin, on August 5 in Sochi will lead to the two countries’ abandoning the dollar and the euro in bilateral trade, the publication said.
The plan is to start using the ruble in payments for Russian natural gas. Later settlements in national currencies will expand to financial transactions on contracts of Turkish contractors, various types of trade between the two countries, as well as allow protecting Turkey’s foreign currency reserves, according to the paper.
