MOSCOW, September 15 (RIA Novosti) - A Kremlin aide predicted on Tuesday the establishment of five or six currency unions based on new reserve currencies within the next ten years.
"Let's see how the Russian and other economies evolve. I think reserve currencies, at least regional, will emerge as they develop," Arkady Dvorkovich told students of the International University in Moscow.
"If we link the ruble to what we currently have — energy resources, oil, natural gas and other commodities, and if we start selling oil and gas contracts for rubles, the ruble will gradually become the necessary currency for many countries," the presidential aide said, adding that it was still unclear whether this was possible.
Dvorkovich said talks were currently being held to establish currency alliances in the Middle East, Asia and Latin America.
"Obviously, discussing the future of the global economy without China, India and Brazil is virtually impossible," Dvorkovich said.
Asked to rank global currencies according to their attractiveness to investors, Dvorkovich said: "The ruble, full stop."
He praised the anti-crisis plan put forward by the U.S. administration last year as meeting the basic challenges set by the ongoing global credit crunch.
In a speech on Wall Street on Monday, U.S. President Barack Obama called for reforms to banking regulation in the U.S. and globally. The speech came a year on from the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, Wall Street's fourth-largest bank at the time.
Dvorkovich also forecast that global economic issues would be more often raised by the G20, with the G8 handling politics.
The next summit of the world's 20 largest economies will be held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on September 24-25.
