The president of the Italian-Russian Chamber of Commerce has said that the Italian business lobby believes that Russian buyers have a right to pay for their Italian goods in rubles, and representatives of his organization are presently in Russia developing a mechanism which will allow them to achieve this.

Speaking to Ria Novosti, Ferdinando Pelazzo said the financial sanctions on Russia, such as the disconnection of its financial institutions from the SWIFT international financial messaging system, have made it difficult to trade in unsanctioned goods, such as wine and clothing.

He said, “We want to create a system that would allow Russian buyers to pay us in rubles to an account in a third country, so that we could then forward the money to Italy. After all, the payments are not subject to sanctions, only certain goods.”

Within a few months he believes the system may become operational.

Pelazzo noted that despite the large numbers of goods which fell under Western trade sanctions last year, 49% of the goods traded with Russia are exempt, and if the trade in those goods is impaired unnecessarily, “Italy will lose a lot.”

Pelazzo noted that Russia is strengthening its economic ties within the BRICS coalition of nations, including Brazil, India, China, and South Africa. BRICS nations have recently been transitioning away from the use of the dollar and euro, as well as Western financial systems, for use in cross-border trade settlements, as they have moved toward using national currencies.

Pelazzo noted reports are that at the next BRICS summit in August, the bloc will issue a single currency, possibly backed in gold, which he called, “the most interesting financial, commercial and geopolitical change.”