OREANDA-NEWS. The EAEU countries are trying to get away from the dollar in mutual settlements. This was told to RIA Novosti by the director of the first department of the CIS countries of the Russian Foreign Ministry Mikhail Evdokimov. According to him, even before the latest sanctions, more than 70% of transactions were carried out in national currencies.

Considerable attention is paid to the issues of the wider use of national currencies in mutual settlements and the move away from the use of the dollar, said Evdokimov.

According to him, even before the Western countries introduced unprecedented sanctions against the financial and banking system of the Russian Federation, the share of national currencies in the mutual settlements of the EAEU countries was more than 70%.

Western countries agreed on the toughest package of sanctions against Russia in history after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the start of a military special operation to denazify and demilitarize Ukraine on February 24.

Among other things, in early March, the European Union decided to disconnect seven Russian banks from the SWIFT international payment system: VTB, Rossiya, Otkritie, Novikombank, Promsvyazbank, Sovcombank and VEB.RF.

Earlier it became known that the United States is considering the option of introducing new sanctions against Russia in connection with the events in Ukraine. This was stated by the official representative of the White House Jen Psaki.

In turn, the EU adopted a fifth round of sanctions against Russia, which is designed to increase pressure on the Russian government and economy, as well as limit the resources of the Kremlin, allowing it to continue its actions in Ukraine. As part of these measures, the European Union completely banned transactions and froze the assets of four key Russian banks.