In a shot across the bow, a Russian lawmaker has proposed a bill making it illegal to posses US Dollars in Russia, including US Dollar denominated bank accounts.  Russian citizens would be able to utilize US Dollars while abroad, and operations could still be engaged by the central bank.  From the Washington Times:

MOSCOW — Predicting the imminent collapse of the U.S. dollar, a Russian lawmaker submitted a bill to the country’s parliament on Wednesday that would ban the use or possession of the American currency.

“If the U.S. national debt continues to grow, the collapse of the dollar system will take place in 2017,” said Mikhail Degtyarev, a lawmaker from the nationalist Liberal Democrat Party, who proposed the bill.

“The countries that will suffer the most will be those that have failed to wean themselves off their dependence on the dollar in time. In light of this, the fact that confidence in the dollar is growing among Russian citizens is extremely dangerous.”

Mr. Degtyarev, a losing candidate in Moscow’s recent mayoral election, also compared the dollar to a Ponzi scheme. He warned that the government would have to bail out Russians holding the U.S. currency if it collapsed.

His bill would partially revive a Soviet-era ban on the dollar. It would prohibit Russians from holding dollars in the country’s banks, and banks also would be unable to carry out transactions in the dollar.

However, Russians still would be able to buy or sell dollars while abroad, as well as hold dollar accounts in foreign banks.

The Central Bank of the Russian Federation and the government would be exempt from the law.

The purpose of the bill would be protect Russians from a collapse of the US Dollar which they think will happen in 2017.  Russian “Oligarchs” are heavily invested in the US and USD, Russians holds 136 Billion in US Treasuries according to official statistics.

By itself it could be said to be political grandstanding; but combined with a growing animosity towards US Dollar hegemony, the US debt crisis, and China’s recent remarks about a ‘de-Americanized’ world, it is a significant event even if the bill doesn’t pass.

Critics of the bill claim that with all it’s flaws, the US financial system is still one of the most stable in the world.  And clearly with Russian heavy investment in the USD, any sudden shift away from the USD would be bad for everyone.

Further Reading

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/nov/13/bill-would-outlaw-us-dollar-russia/