Putin Adviser Glazyev: We’ll Evade Sanctions By Switching to Other Currencies!

• Putin Adviser Glazyev: We’ll Evade Sanctions By Switching to Other Currencies! 
  by Dan Weil, http://www.moneynews.com/ 
  Russia can circumvent the economic sanctions being applied by the United States and Europe through the use of other currencies and the creation of its own payment system, Sergei Glazyev, an economic adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin, said Tuesday, according to The Voice of Russia.
  –
  To be sure, a senior Kremlin official said Glazyev was merely voicing his “personal opinion” rather than government policy, the news service reported.
  –
  In any case, he said, “we have wonderful economic and trade relations with our southern and eastern partners. We will find a way not just to eliminate our dependence on the U.S., but also profit from these sanctions.”
  –
  The penalties would also mean that Russian businesses won’t repay loans to U.S. banks, Glazyev said. “If the U.S. chooses to freeze our assets, then our equities and liabilities in dollars will also be frozen,” he said.
  –
  “This means that our banks and businesses will not return [repay] the loans to American partners.”
  –
  Glazyev also said that if the United States freezes the assets of Russian government institutions and private investors, Moscow will recommend that Russians dump their U.S. Treasury holdings.
  –
  The senior Kremlin official said, “Mr. Glazyev has not been authorized to talk on behalf of the Russian government and especially to voice such unacceptable measures.”
  –
  Meanwhile, Russia’s intervention in Ukraine is creating big trouble for the Russian economy. The actions led Morgan Stanley economists Jacob Nell and Alina Slyusarchuk to cut their estimate for Russia’s 2014 economic growth to 0.8 percent from 2.5 percent, Bloomberg reported.

end