Russians have already arranged the date when Belarus loses its independence – the 1st of January 2005 :: Charter'97 :: News

The Central Bank of Russia will be the only emission center when the Russian ruble is introduced as the only legal money on the territory of Russia and Belarus. This news was announced on Monday by the first deputy Finances minister of Russia Alexey Ulukaev in the upshot of the conference of Russian-Belarusian working group on preparing the intergovernmental agreement on introducing the unique currency. So, Ulukaev refuted the statement about the possibility of creating two releasing centers of the “union state” that had appeared in mass media before. According to this document, the ruble must pass current from the beginning of January 2005 as the only legal cash on the territory of Belarus.

“The production will be fulfilled by the Russian Central Bank”, - the first deputy minister emphasized.

He quoted that everything has been coordinated with the Belarusian side and there was not a single clause in the document that would arise somebody’s discontent.

Now the document must be signed at the level of Russian government and Russian National Bank and Belarusian government and National bank of the republic.

Ulukaev said the currency exchange course hasn’t been fixed yet. It will be arranged in between the intergovernmental agreement’s signing and the beginning of the year 2005.

The terms of the Belarusian rubles exchange into Russian rubles haven’t been fixed yet either, - Ulukaev declared. “However, the parallel circulation of the both currencies won’t take place”, -he underscored.