"If US continues to use dollar as a weapon..."

Russia, just like other countries, may soon move away from trade in dollars, VTB chairman, Andrei Kostin, said in an interview with Bloomberg. This will happen if the US continues to use its currency as a weapon, he added.

"If the US continues to use the dollar as a weapon, then it's inevitable that not only Russia, but also other countries we begin to move away from trade in the dollars," he noted. "It may take about twenty years, but this process will absolutely happen," Kostin said.

In addition, VTB chairman noted that the US sanctions against Russia are illegal and unjustified, and the investigation conducted by the US Attorney General Robert Muller is politically motivated.

However, Kostin admitted that transition to trade in national currencies could take a long time. "This process won't be fast, it's impossible to immediately abandon the dollar," he said on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum. "It's probably almost impossible, taking into account its role in the economy," he said. "But if we don't do something, then we will never achieve anything," he believes.

As Dmitry Piskulov, chairman of the board of the National Currency Association, noted in an interview with Vestnik Kavkaza, "desire of countries to avoid the risk that US authorities will use the dollar as a financial weapon to promote their foreign policy goals makes them think about moving to trade in national currencies. We can expect that countries will switch to other currencies in the future, which will hurt American economy."

The head of the finance, monetary circulation and credit department at RANEPA, Alexander Khandruev, said that "there's already a trend of formation of multicurrency standard: strictly speaking, it already exists, because the IMF currency basket includes five currencies - dollar, euro, yen, yuan and pound. Perhaps the euro and the yuan will push the dollar out," he said.