Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Russia is ready to consider the possibility of paying for gas in euros and the national currencies of the countries it deals with.

In his speech at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Putin explained that depositors "still prefer to deal in dollars," noting that the matter is different between oil and gas, as "oil is more linked to the dollar because it is a commodity exchange."

He continued: "As for gas, it is not a commodity exchange, so we are ready to consider the possibility of settlements using national currencies, which we are doing with many countries, and our partners are ready to negotiate to work with euros.”

Putin also announced the first line of the "Northern Stream 2" pipeline being completed and affirmed that work is ongoing on the second line, which will be completed within a month and a half to two months.

In the same context, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, for his part, announced, in the same forum, a change in the Russian National Welfare Fund's strategy within the period, specifically concerning the dollar, to bring down the US currency reserves to zero.

He added that besides replacing the dollar reserves with other currencies, gold reserves will be included in the fund.

The minister pointed out that the British pound's reserves will be raised to 5%, the euro's share to 40%, the Chinese yuan's share will be increased to 30%, and the gold's share to 20%.

Moscow established the National Welfare Fund about 10 years ago and accumulated a part of oil revenues in it during the boom in its prices to let it be a safety card for the country during crises and low prices of crude oil.

It is noteworthy that oil prices fell globally last week amid the lack of organization in receiving anti-Corona vaccines and the slow vaccination process in developed and emerging Asian countries alike.