Putin says Russia and Iran to switch almost completely to national currencies in mutual settlements

Russia and Iran have almost completely switched to settlements in national currencies and are working on interfacing payment systems, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on January 17.

"Our countries have almost completely switched to national currencies in mutual settlements, are striving to build sustainable channels of credit and banking interaction, and are working on interfacing national payment systems," the Russian leader said at a press conference following the signing of a comprehensive strategic partnership agreement between the countries.

The share of transactions in Russian rubles and Iranian rials in 2024 exceeded 95% of all bilateral trade transactions, Putin specified.

He pointed out that the talks focused on economic cooperation between Russia and Iran, which are significant partners for each other in trade, investment and finance.

The pace of cooperation in these spheres is steadily increasing, and only for 10 months of last year the Russian-Iranian trade turnover added 15.5%, the Russian president noted. Putin also expressed confidence that the entry into force of a free trade agreement between Iran and the Eurasian Economic Union will help boost Russian-Iranian commercial ties.

The Russian leader named energy as the most important area of cooperation between Moscow and Tehran. He also noted the great importance of cooperation in the field of transportation, deepening of humanitarian cooperation and growth of counter tourist flows.

The Iranian president arrived in Moscow on an official visit earlier in the day. The two leaders held talks in the Kremlin, during which Pezeshkian declared the strategic nature of Russian-Iranian relations and Putin pointed to the large-scale and mutually beneficial ties between Russia and Iran. The meeting resulted in the signing of a comprehensive strategic partnership agreement between the two states.

Before that, on January 8, Ambassador of the Islamic Republic to the Russian Federation Kazem Jalali announced the start of payments with Mir cards in Iran in the first half of the year within the framework of the agreement on the integration of payment systems. At the next stage, cards of the Iranian payment system Shetab will be accepted in Russia.

At the end of December 2024, it was reported that trade between Russia and Iran reached a volume of $3.3 billion in nine months, up 14.7%. The leaders of the EAEU countries then approved the entry into force of a free trade agreement with the Iranian side.