RF President says, Russia and Armenia may switch to settlements in national currencies

Russian President, Vladimir Putin, doesn’t exclude that Russia and Armenia way switch to mutual settlements in national currencies, i.e., in Drums and Rubles, which will further contribute to expansion and diversification of trade.

Vladimir Putin stated about that when summarizing the meeting his Armenian counterpart.

At the same time, the issue of appropriateness of introduction of a uniform currency in the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) member-states has been discussed since the moment of establishment of this organization.

Ruben Mehrabyan, an expert at the Armenian Center for Political and International Studies, believes that introduction of a uniform currency doesn’t aim at economic development, but is rather a political issue – Putin’s idea to turn the EAEU into the Soviet Union.

In the opinion of Tatul Manaseryan, an economist, uniform currency could be found in the countries that have managed to reach the highest, 4^th level of the economic integration. Before that, the following needs to be formed: 1. free trade area; 2. customs union; 3. common market. It will be hard to switch to a uniform currency until the economic, social, tax and budget policies are unified.

During his visit to Russia, Armenian President also met with the RF Premier, Dmitry Medvedev.

As Medvedev pointed out, despite the current problems, there was an increase in trade turnover between the two countries. In particular, the volumes of Armenian agricultural products exported to Russia have increased. In the Russian Premier’s opinion, the growth in exports from Armenia proves that integration of the republic ‘has already yielded its fruits’. The matter actually concerns Armenia’s membership in the EAEU.