Settlements between the countries could be arranged in local currencies or gold, an African politician has suggested

The central banks of Russia and Zimbabwe should establish settlements in local currencies and look at opportunities for securing trade in gold reserves, the speaker of the Zimbabwean ruling party ZANU-PF, Christopher Mutsvangwa, told RIA Novosti on Wednesday.

The southern African country has been under Western sanctions for 22 years, the official noted, adding that curbs imposed on Russia should not handicap trade between the two countries.

Earlier this year, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced that Russia and countries in Africa were developing a cooperation strategy to replace the US dollar and the euro in settlements, adding that the parties were preparing documents on rearranging the mechanism of cooperation under Western sanctions.

“Our banks should find a way to make the Russian ruble and the Zimbabwean dollar freely convertible. Also, our countries both have rich gold reserves. We are among the top seven countries in terms of gold mining, and production volumes are growing. We are now mining 35 tons per year, but we could mine all 50. So we could think about securing our trade in gold reserves,” Mutsvangwa suggested.

The official went on to say that “nothing could derail” trade between Moscow and Harare, noting that China, India, and Middle Eastern nations were also moving towards abandoning the dollar in settlements.

The politician also proposed establishing more banks that use alternative payment systems to replace the West’s SWIFT messaging system. He noted that trade in dollars was “a limiting factor” adding that Russia and African nations should set up “more banks outside of the US-run global SWIFT banking system.”

Moscow has been steadily pursuing a policy of de-dollarization in foreign trade. In recent years, Russia and some of its trade partners, including India and China, have been ramping up the use of domestic currencies in mutual settlements in an effort to move away from the dollar and euro.

Links to Russia’s new trade partners in African countries, including Zimbabwe, have been quickly taking shape in recent years. In 2019, Russia hosted the first Russia-Africa Summit, with participants outlining priority areas for economic cooperation, security, culture and science. The second summit is scheduled to take place in St. Petersburg in July.

  • @Shrike502
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    171 year ago

    Sounds like Zimbabwe is about to suddenly be found authoritarian

        • @redtea
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          101 year ago

          Got to wonder how so many ordinary people (the only type of Twitter user) suddenly heard this rather niche news and get so outraged that they get a trend going. There aren’t 92,000 Twitter users who could point to Zimbabwe on a map. The greatest truck the devil ever played was convincing god that private social media is curated by the people.

    • 🏳️‍⚧️ Elara ☭
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      1 year ago

      Zimbabwe is now an Evil Dictatorship™ with starving people who can pull trains on their own

    • SovereignState
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      101 year ago

      Nooo and so soon after we helped get Our GuysTM in power 😭

      • @Shrike502
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        51 year ago

        Oh is the current government comprador?

        • SovereignState
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          1 year ago

          AUKUS assisted a faction within the ZANU-PF ruling party with ousting the “anti-white racist” Mugabe and his faction in 2017, but the U.S. isn’t super happy with where the country’s gone since then either. It’s difficult to find reliable information on Mugabe - difficult to find information that isn’t racist garbage, anyway, but I remember at the time the major talking point was that he was “stealing” land from white settlers and redistributing it amongst the black populace, which basically made him African Hitler in the eyes of western MSM. Of course, in 2018 after the coup they basically stopped all land redistribution programs, and have even invited colonists to apply to get “their” land back.

          https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-53988788