# Russia’s plan to replace the dollar with the yuan failed because of U.S. secondary sanctions

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/russias-plan-to-replace-the-dollar-with-the-yuan-failed-because-of-u-s-secondary-sanctions/
- Published: 2026-11-11T08:22:37+00:00
- Updated: 2026-11-11T09:40:21+00:00
- Original publisher: Meduza
- Original article: https://meduza.io/en/news/2026/11/11/russia-s-plan-to-replace-the-dollar-with-the-yuan-failed-because-of-u-s-secondary-sanctions
- Topics: Europe, Geopolitics, Politics, World

## Key points

- Russia’s push to replace the dollar with the yuan has faltered.
- The yuan now makes up 22% of Russian export settlements.
- Sanctions have made payments to China less reliable.

## Summary

Russia has scaled back its effort to replace the dollar with the yuan in foreign trade, as tighter US secondary sanctions led Chinese financial institutions to restrict dealings with Russian businesses. The shift matters because the yuan had become central to Russia’s trade and domestic financial activity after Western sanctions followed its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

By 2024, the yuan accounted for nearly half of Russia’s foreign trade settlements and was the most traded currency on the Moscow Exchange. Since US sanctions on banks tightened in June 2024, the yuan’s share of settlements for Russian exports has fallen by half, to 22%; Russia now receives 69% of export revenue from trade with Asian countries in roubles. Payments to China increasingly pass through intermediaries, and companies say no available channel guarantees a successful transaction.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.