Vlad and Jiabao do not like QE2...

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Russia and China have lifted restrictions on trade in the rubles and the yuan in a bid to boost bilateral trade and economic cooperation, following the results of a meeting between Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao on Tuesday.

"This is a serious step forward towards creating better trade conditions and this is the result of the strengthening of our economies," Putin said.

"Until now, under our previous agreements, we made mutual settlements exclusively in foreign currency, first of all, in U.S. dollars, and now, as the first step, trade in Russian rubles has started on the forex exchange in China and at the beginning of December trade in the yuan will begin in Moscow," Putin said.

In 2002, Russia and China started an experiment in their border areas, which allowed Russian and Chinese banks to open ruble and yuan accounts. A year later, the Bank of Russia and the People's Bank of China signed an agreement on trade in national currencies.

ST PETERSBURG, November 23 (RIA Novosti)

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