Russia's plan to replace the dollar with the yuan failed due to secondary US sanctions. Bloomberg.
Due to secondary US sanctions, Russia has effectively abandoned attempts to replace the dollar with the yuan in foreign trade, Bloomberg reports.
After the start of the great war with Ukraine and the introduction of Western sanctions, Russia began to actively switch to the yuan. In 2024 it accounted for almost half of foreign trade settlements. The yuan became the most traded currency on the Moscow Stock Exchange and overtook the dollar in terms of bank deposits.
The situation began to change after the tightening of secondary US sanctions against banks in June 2024. Fearing restrictions, Chinese banks began to stop cooperation with Russia, freeze payments and return funds to senders. The share of the yuan in payments for Russian exports has halved compared to the peak in 2024 - to 22%.
As of the fall of 2026, writes Bloomberg, Russia receives 69% of export revenue from trade with Asian countries in rubles.