Quote from: paxmao on Today at 08:55:29 PM

Quote from: Gyfts on Today at 08:11:10 PM

Russia is now walking back their statements on demanding rubles for oil exports to countries they deem "unfriendly."

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/russia-will-not-demand-immediate-switch-gas-payments-roubles-kremlin-2022-03-30/

...

It seems that, on the pissing contest, Germany's got a bigger one this time. Changing unilaterally a contract would send a message difficult to recall to the markets, which in the end are based on reputation (as I said in a few posts).

However there is a chance that Russia may actually implement this on future contracts. One of the reasons why the USD can print money with such generosity is that it is backed by crude, since most contracts around the world request a payment in USD. If Russia decides to change that on their oil and gas contracts, which may be a distinct possibility in the future, it may reinforce the rouble and make it more stable.

From what I hear (mainly info/hypotheses from Scott Ritter in this case) Russia was pretty careful to honor the letter and spirit of existing contracts, and why would they not? There are plenty of things for which contracts are not drawn to get going on the Ruble (and hopefully BTC) stuff. If Germany cannot or will not honor their side of the contracts because they feel the need to kowtow(*) to Washington, oh well (shrug).

Russia seems to be playing the 'reliable partner' angle recently (last decade or so.) In other words, they do what they say, say what they do, and don't make up shit out of whole cloth as a matter of policy recently. If one wants to have a trusted currency, best to neither make it non-fungible or inflate it to worthlessness. If you are going to do that [cough, 'U.S.', cough] you better be damn sure that you've got enough leg-breakers to force most/all players into your racket. I don't think they do. Not anymore.

I do hope that the U.S. and Western minions stick to their guns AND that Russia is serious about BTC. Huge opportunities to broker/supply liquidity for transactions since things like fertilizer will be dirt cheap in Russia even while the West is in the famine-zone and the products are in high demand.

* Kowtow - 'To show servile deference.'