Russia and Myanmar have been negotiating direct bilateral payments to dodge international sanctions.
On Tuesday, junta-appointed Central Bank of Myanmar governor Than Than Swe and Russian financial representatives discussed promoting the use of the kyat and ruble in trade and bank transactions.
Russian has designated the large commercial bank, Evrofinance Mosnarbank, to make transactions with Myanmar’s banks but no bank in Myanmar has been chosen.
During his trip to Russia last year, junta boss Min Aung Hlaing said the US dollar is used to bully smaller economies. He addressed the Moscow Conference on International Security in August and condemned the “weaponization of the US dollar”.
Myanmar’s regime is seeking ways to replace the dollar with the Chinese yuan and the ruble. Russia is also trying to reduce its dependence on the dollar to bypass international sanctions.
On Tuesday, the two sides also discussed the valuation of their currencies for barter exchanges.
On November 1, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China’s Yangon branch joined China’s Cross-Border Interbank Payment System. Than Than Swe said membership of the system would enable Myanmar to reduce dollar dependence because of international transactions.
Russia’s Ros-Congress Investments Fund delegation also met the junta’s foreign economic relations minister, Dr Kan Zaw, on Tuesday to discuss trade and investment.
In his trip to Russia in September, Kan Zaw said six of Myanmar’s banks had agreed to use the MIR Payment System for direct kyat and ruble payments. The banks were not named.
A Russian financial delegation visited Min Aung Hlaing in November last year and March to streamline monetary relations.
The regimes in Russia and Myanmar currently use the yuan in their transactions.
