The European economy, experts point out, still remains in the grip of a crisis, while China, for example, is prosperous. The West, including the US, has begun to curtail the profitable relations with Russia on the background of Ukrainian problems, which has nothing to do with the East. And business always develops in the environment of stability and mutual interest. It is reasonable that at present the Russian economy – that is investments, exports, imports and technology – is speeding up its advance in the eastern direction, President of the Centre of Strategic Communications Dmitry Abzalov says. Instead of America and Europe, our target is South-East Asia now.

Russia has decided to develop cooperation with Asian countries. India, for example is our partner in issues of the military-industrial complex, in the high-tech segment. Cooperation with China is based on the raw materials sector, engineering, military technology. Recall that the Russian president’s visit is due in May.

Most likely, agreements on natural gas will be signed. Actually, bearing in mind that China will become the world’s largest economy in the near future, the development of the eastern vector will guarantee that a considerable part of extra profits and the growth of the home market will be generated in the South-East Asia.

Analysts believe that western sanctions could provide stronger positions to the developing countries, one of which is Russia itself. This is especially true of the high-tech sector, both in the regional and global market. In particular, Russia is practicing phase-out of imports.

The national industry is expected to develop faster due to external factors. Discussing the reasons for the imposed sanctions, experts say that at present the western elites are seizing the opportunity to dictate their terms to the Russian economy. Actually, this happened on the past as well but the situation became especially strained when Russia started talking about the Customs Union, head of the Centre of Economic Research at the Institute of Globalization and Social Movements Vasily Koltashov says.

European elites are rather short-sighted and oriented at controlling the markets, including the Russian economy, especially the raw materials sector. They never lost interest in that sector. For this reason, they will always be in conflict with Russia, especially after Russia announced the establishment of the Customs Union. Still, it is wrong to say that Russia is in conflict with the EU. On the contrary, Russians are extremely tired of the permanent economic crisis in the EU, the aggravation of that crisis and the austerity policy.

Speaking about the priorities of the eastern vector for Russia, experts point out that the establishment of new stock exchanges in South-East Asia is not far off and they can become serious competition for London or New York. And for Russia as a resource-dependent country this is one of the determining factors. The more so, because the Chinese economy grows fast, constantly increasing its consumption of oil and gas. Thus, in 1980 China consumed only 3% of the global oil production. Now it consumes 10%, leaving Japan behind. Only the US is still ahead. If this trend persists, China will inevitably start thinking about the establishment of an alternative oil and gas market.

Also, chances are that Russia, as one of the largest suppliers of oil and gas, will soon switch to mutual payments with India and China in the national currencies – roubles, yuans and rupees. In this case the dollar and the euro will gradually retire into the background.
Read more: http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_05_04/Russia-can-switch-to-payments-with-India-China-in-national-currencies-crushing-dollar-amid-sanctions-experts-8018/