Lavrov announced the need to move away from Western payment systems

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Sergei Lavrov said that he considers it necessary to move away from settlements in dollars and the use of "Western-controlled" payment systems. In an interview with the Chinese media before his visit to China, he said that Russia and China should reduce the risks associated with the imposition of sanctions.

“It is necessary to move away from the use of international payment systems controlled by the West”, the website of the MFA of Russia reports.

The need "to reduce sanctions risks by strengthening its technological independence, by switching to settlements in national currencies and in world currencies alternative to the dollar"was also noted.
In December, Reuters reported that the team of then-US President Joe Biden is studying several options for influencing Russia. James Lewis, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, noted to the agency that disconnecting Russia from the interbank SWIFT system would be one of the more drastic options.