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Russia’s financial infrastructure is highly developed, the deputy minister said, adding that investors can use the Euroclear and Clearstream securities depositories for easy access.

“It is necessary to become at least the local financial hub for the EEU countries,” Oreshkin said at the Krasnoyarsk Economic Forum.

Oreshkin, however, dismissed the idea of a monetary union between the EEU states, stressing that such a union would have more negative than positive consequences.

The EEU is a bloc created to streamline the flow of goods, capital and labor between its member nations, namely Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan. The union came into being on January 1, 2015.