The United States government announced a new batch of sanctions against Russia on Wednesday, targeting the energy, metals, and mining industries, as well as the Moscow Stock Exchange and major lenders Sber and VTB. These sanctions have already angered Russia and caused tensions to rise even further, as Moscow deems the U.S. dollar “toxic.”

The measures, which cover 300 additional individuals and entities, are aimed at impacting trade between Russia and its partners in China, Türkiye, and Kyrgyzstan, as well as other nations in Central Asia, the Middle East, and the Caribbean.

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“The dollar has become toxic. Washington has totally undermined trust in the dollar as a global reserve currency by imposing illegal sanctions against our country’s financial institutions,”  State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin has said.  He added that the sanctions haven’t been as beneficial to the U.S. as its rulers had hoped.

The global trend towards using national currencies in trade instead of the greenback has gained momentum, Volodin said, claiming that many other nations – in particular BRICS members – are looking for alternatives to the dollar as they don’t want to become “hostages” of US politics.

The lawmaker noted that since 2022, the share of “unfriendly” currencies in Russia’s export settlements has dropped from 84.7% to 17.8%. At the same time, transactions in the ruble and national currencies have surged by 3.5 and 15 times respectively.  -RT

According to Volodin, more than 90% of payments between Russia and its partners within the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) bloc of post-Soviet nations are carried out in national currencies. Russia-China trade is now 95% settled in rubles and yuan, he added.

Russia’s rhetoric against the U.S. has ramped up in recent weeks, but they are continuing to refrain from retaliation as the West crosses more “red lines” laid down by Moscow.

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