Oilprice.com, a reputable internet portal, reported that close cooperation between Russia and China in the energy sector could push the yuan up to the pedestal which is currently occupied by the U.S. dollar.
China and Russia have been furiously signing energy deals that indicate their mutual energy interests. The most obvious is the $456 billion gas deal that Russian state-owned Gazprom signed with China in May 2014.
High-level cooperation between Russia and China have set off alarm bells in the West as policymakers and oil and gas executives watch the balance of power in global energy markets shift to the East. It could also mean a serious threat to the U.S. petrodollar which has been carefully maintained by the U.S. for several decades.
Interestingly, the U.S. facilitated the yuan reinforcement and its development into the alternative reserve currency as the U.S. played the crucial role in imposing the sanctions against Russia.
In the context of restrictions in trade with the West, Moscow has increasingly looked to Eastern countries, in particular its former Cold War rival as a key buyer of Russian crude, its most important export.
In 1971, U.S. President Richard Nixon introduced the petrodollar, taking the U.S. off the gold standard, which formally ended the linkage between the world's major currencies and gold.