Russia may be doing this mainly to protect itself from US control of the dollar financial system, but the irony here is that Russia probably thinks that cutting the dollar share of its sovereign wealth fund and shifting to the euro...
https://www.ft.com/content/c196fe1c-0622-11ea-a984-fbbacad9e7dd via @financialtimes
...and the renminbi will also somehow help to weaken the US economy and help those of Europe and China, especially if helps to encourage a larger trend.

But when Russia acquires dollar assets, it automatically forces down US savings rates, forces up US debt, and increases the...
...US current account deficit. Buying fewer US dollars and more euros and renminbi is the economic equivalent of forcing an appreciation of the ruble, the euro and the renminbi against the dollar, which is exactly what the US wants. The only way this won’t happen is if the ECB...
...or the PBoC recycle their own increased inflows by buying more US dollars, in which case nothing happens to the US, while Europe and China have to deal with more reserves, something neither (especially Europe) really needs or wants.
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