Russia yuan payments decline BRICS dollar alternatives, Digi Mart USA News: According to Bloomberg, citing the latest Russian central bank data, the yuan’s share of payments for Russian exports has fallen by half from its mid-2024 peak to just 22% in 2026, despite growing trade between Moscow and Beijing.
Meanwhile, Russia now receives 69% of its export payments from Asian countries in rubles, marking a significant shift away from the Chinese currency.
The development follows years of efforts by Russian President Vladimir Putin to promote alternatives to the dollar through BRICS, gaining support from China, Brazil and South Africa, alongside newer African members Egypt and Ethiopia, with Nigeria and Uganda joining as partners. However, members remain divided over replacing the dollar, with some favouring alternative payment systems instead.
Russia accelerated its shift towards the yuan after invading Ukraine in February 2022, when Western sanctions restricted Moscow’s access to the global financial system. By 2024, the currency accounted for nearly half of Russia’s foreign trade settlements, becoming the most traded currency on the Moscow Exchange and overtaking the dollar in bank deposits.
Putin repeatedly criticised Washington’s use of financial sanctions, which he said was weakening confidence in the dollar. During the October 2024 BRICS summit in Kazan, he accused the United States of using its currency as a political weapon.
“The dollar is being used as a weapon. We really see that this is so,” Putin said, describing the approach as a major mistake.
Russia’s yuan transactions faced restrictions after Washington expanded secondary sanctions on June 12, 2024, targeting foreign banks dealing with sanctioned Russian entities to limit Moscow’s ability to finance the war in Ukraine. Under the measures, foreign banks risked losing access to US banking accounts and dollar payment channels for facilitating transactions involving sanctioned Russian institutions.
Washington also sanctioned the Moscow Exchange, forcing it to suspend dollar and euro trading, while Chinese banks restricted Russian payments to protect their access to the US financial system. Sergei Ishkov, a partner at consulting firm MCK Partners, told Russian newspaper Kommersant that Chinese banks risked losing their American correspondent banking relationships if they continued processing payments for sanctioned Russian institutions.
“This, of course, is a gigantic loss,” Ishkov said, explaining that the potential consequences outweighed the benefits of doing business with Russia.
Russian businesses subsequently turned to smaller regional Chinese banks and intermediaries with yuan liquidity in China. According to Kommersant, transport company STT Logistics estimates that alternative payment arrangements can cost businesses as much as 20% of the transfer amount.
However, some Russian companies continue to make yuan payments without major difficulties. “I haven’t noticed any issues with payments there in yuan,” Alexey Kuchmin, CEO of AIR Group, told Kommersant, explaining that his company continues to process transactions without significant delays.
China remains Russia’s largest trading partner, accounting for more than a third of its foreign trade turnover, according to Bloomberg, despite payment restrictions. The decline comes as Chinese President Xi Jinping seeks to expand the yuan’s international use, although Beijing maintains capital controls and has not committed to replacing the dollar.
According to the International Monetary Fund, the yuan accounted for less than 3% of global trade settlements in the third quarter of 2025, while SWIFT data cited by Kommersant shows it fell from fourth to fifth place in global payments, behind the Japanese yen.
