A few days ago, White House Deputy National Security Adviser Manmohan Singh said in Ukraine that the United States is working closely with other G7 member states to explore ways to maximize the use of Russia's frozen assets for Ukraine's interests, including the huge interest accrued by transferring these assets now and in the next 10 to 30 years. At present, about 277 billion US dollars of overseas assets of the Central Bank of Russia have been frozen by the United States and Europe, and it is expected to generate nearly 300 billion yuan in interest in the next 10 years. If this money is really given directly to Ukraine, it will definitely be a relief in the eyes of Ukraine.
But for Russia, the United States and Europe freeze their assets and want to give interest to Ukraine, which makes Russia completely lose trust in the United States and the West, and it is completely unreliable for money to be stored in the United States and Europe, and in Russia's economic and trade activities, as long as the dollar is needed, it may be restricted by the United States, which makes Russia very uncomfortable. What to do?
Recently, Russian Finance Minister Siluanov revealed that they are discussing the possibility of borrowing yuan from their Chinese counterparts, and mentioned this issue in a dialogue between the two ministries of finance at the end of 2023, but China and Russia have not yet made a final decision. Is Russia anxious to borrow money from China because it lacks money? The answer is not so simple; Russia is sitting on abundant energy resources, and it can obtain considerable income by selling oil to China, India, and other countries alone; the more important purpose of Russia wanting to borrow more renminbi is that it wants to break through the economic sanctions imposed by the United States and Europe with the help of the renminbi's ever-increasing international influence, and it can also use the renminbi as a link to stabilize normal economic and trade exchanges with other countries, which makes Russia have a more lasting combat effectiveness in the game with the United States. Therefore, in the context of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, if Russia wants to open up the situation in economy and trade, the yuan is very important, and it is waiting for China to borrow money.
Russia has asked for the renminbi as its hole card, but why has we not made a clear promise until now? In the words of Zhang Hanhui, Chinese ambassador to Russia, "The issue of issuing bonds and borrowing money in China can be discussed." There is no problem with the principle, but how to operate it is a technical issue that requires further discussion by professionals." Judging from this sentence, Russia wants to borrow more yuan, and our attitude is open, but since it is an economic and technical issue, we must take time to discuss, such as how to issue bonds, when to repay the money, and how to calculate the interest.
In addition, the cautiousness shown by China in borrowing money also shows that we are very rational about Sino-Russian relations, and it is not that the relations between the two countries are good. In the future, under the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and BRICS, there will definitely be more big moves between China and Russia.