Venezuela and Russia Advance in De-Dollarized Payment System

On Thursday, Venezuelan Foreign Affairs Minister Yvan Gil said that his country and Russia are moving forward in their de-dollarization process to protect and boost their financial, commercial and economic relations.

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Gil held a meeting in Moscow with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, where they agreed to "reinforce" financial communication between the central banks of the two countries. Currently, the Russian MIR payment system is operational throughout Venezuela.

“Today, the MIR platform allows payments to be made in 100 percent of the territory of Venezuela, and about 36 percent of all payment points accept MIR cards,” Gil said, as reported by Russia Today.

The Bolivarian diplomat also mentioned in a statement that Venezuela is willing to join the BRICS group "as soon as possible."

For his part, Lavrov said that Russia will support "the desire of our friends to cooperate and actively participate in this association."

Gil said the West seeks to undermine the sovereignty of Russia and Venezuela, but it will not succeed, since Moscow and Caracas "will protect their bilateral relations from all kinds of unilateral restrictive measures."

The Bolivarian official added that Venezuela and Russia have reached "important agreements" to counteract the West's sanctions policy.

"They intended to unfairly isolate us monetarily and financially with blockades and criminal sanctions. However, with the incorporation of the Russian payment system MIR, we are building the financial and monetary systems of the new world," Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said during his weekly television show in mid-June.