MOSCOW, May 31, 2024 (BSS/TASS) - Russia and China will work on creating transaction mechanisms independent from the West, which could be regional banks, Director General of the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) Ivan Timofeev said in an interview with TASS.

According to Timofeev, there is room for expanding Western sanctions from a technical point of view. "In particular, they may affect a wider list of Russian companies and individuals, new sectors of the economy," he said, adding, "There is quite a large space for the use of secondary sanctions - restrictive measures against Russia's foreign partners or companies abroad that cooperate with Russian companies."

At the same time, "at a number of points the sanctions have already exhausted their potential, primarily in terms of the shock impact on the Russian economy in the first months after the start of the special military operation." "But the Russian economy handled it and went through a fairly rapid period of adaptation," he stated.