Putin has no objections against single currency in Customs Union

Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan may switch to single currency. It is an opinion of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. He stated that during a televised Q&A session with the nation on December 15, RIA Novosti informs.

"We have not achieved the level of integration as high as in the EU yet. But we are speaking about a possibility to pass on to the creation of a Eurasian Union in the future, after launching a single economic space. I think that to a degree, as a result of a negotiations process and reaching a compromise we certainly are to reach this stage as well. I hope we shall reach a single currency and macroeconomic policy alignment as well", Putin said.

We remind that on November 19 in an interview to "Vesti v Subbotu" TV program at Rossija 1 TV channel Alyaksandr Lukashenka said he did not exclude that Russian ruble could be the single accounting currency in the Eurasian Union.

"Let us proceed to the national currency in our counts, let us proceed to the Russian ruble. I was insistent, and maybe too insistent on that".

He stressed that this issue should be thought out properly, as "haste, fuzzy thinking and inefficient arrangement could lead to the things that are taking place in Europe now".

"Why are we paying for energy resources, for raw materials and other things we buy from you, with dollars? First we buy dollars, then we carry them and pay to you and so on", Lukashenka observed.

"Well, why won’t we introduce a single unit, like an ecu as you have called it. We can go through this, like we have passed the stage of the Customs Union to the Single Economic Space, and maybe we could reach the Russian ruble as well, if it is interesting for everyone", the president of Belarus noted.

To his mind, "Russian ruble has too many subcomponents to be interesting to everyone".