The use of roubles in Egyptian-Russian trade transactions will boost commercial relations between the two countries, writes Ahmed Kotb

Experts have praised an agreement to use national currencies in future bilateral trade between Cairo and Moscow instead of the US dollar that was taken during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Egypt last week.
The two countries also discussed a free-trade agreement between Egypt and the Eurasian Economic Union led by Russia, as well as Russia’s supplying Egypt with more natural gas.

By replacing the dollar with the Egyptian pound and the Russian rouble for settling accounts in bilateral trade, the decision is seen as a way of boosting the volume of trade and reducing dependency on the dollar in trade agreements, something that had previously contributed to the weakening of both currencies on the exchange markets.

This is not the first time Russia has sought to reduce the influence of the US dollar on its currency. At the end of last year, an agreement with China resulted in both countries switching to domestic currencies in trading.

bbabo.Net