All4One
I don't believe Russia is doing this for any reason other than their own - they simply do not have faith in the $US maintaining its role of World Reserve Currency.
In the last 2 years Russia has -
* completely rid itself of its holdings of US Treasury Bonds;
* very significantly increased its large holding of physical gold;
* been entering into contracts with other nations based on the Ruble or Yuan and not the US$
* continued to shift its cash reserves out of US$.
I don't believe they've done/are doing any of this to "impress" anybody at all.
bye
dub