Afrasianet - Sayed Shibl - Facing Western sanctions on Russia is no longer just a matter of circumstance. Rather, it has gradually evolved into a comprehensive economic strategy that treats sanctions as a "permanent environment" rather than an "emergency crisis."
Moscow understands that Western sanctions are not merely circumstantial pressures, but rather a permanent strategic structure used to reshape the global balance of power and constrain the capabilities of emerging countries. This realization has led Russia to embark on a long path to building a sanctions-resistant economy, combining internal fortification, alliances with regimes that reject U.S. hegemony, and developing alternative financial and commercial instruments to reduce Washington's influence.
As the Russian-Western confrontation intensifies after the Ukraine war that broke out in February 2022, and in light of Moscow's efforts to bypass the sanctions that number close to 31,000 (according to independent analytical platforms), the features of a broader project are beginning to emerge, as an international axis is gradually forming to oppose US sanctions and limit Washington's ability to use the dollar as a geopolitical weapon (de-dollarization).
Economic Immunization: From Reaction to State Strategy
Confronting Western sanctions on Russia, especially after 2014 and 2022, is no longer just patchwork or circumstantial decisions. Rather, it has gradually evolved into a comprehensive economic strategy that treats sanctions as a "permanent environment" rather than an "emergency crisis."
This new approach has prompted Moscow to build an integrated system of economic tools that enhance its ability to withstand external pressures. The most prominent paths in which Russia has moved can be summarized in three main axes:
First, promoting self-sufficiency in food, medicine and heavy industry:
After Western sanctions were imposed in 2014, Russia was banned from importing most European agricultural products. However, the result was contrary to expectations, as dairy, meat and poultry production doubled, and Russia became the world's largest exporter of wheat for consecutive years, with exports reaching about 57 million tonnes in the 2024-2025 season, despite logistical challenges.
In the pharmaceutical file, the Russian government has expanded its "self-reliance" programs, with the proportion of locally manufactured medicines rising to about 70% of packages sold in 2023-2024 (according to DrugPatentWatch and the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade), compared to 55% at the end of the last decade.
At the heavy industry level, companies such as Rostec and Uralvagonzavod have increased their production of domestic components for aircraft and military/civilian equipment, despite sanctions, with production up 20-30% in some sectors since 2022, although some challenges remain, for example, with regard to the import of electronic chips.
But this does not mean that the sanctions were ineffective, as there were real challenges to the Russian economy in the early stages. However, the turning point came with the government's adoption of an urgent and realistic package of measures, in parallel with the expansion of cooperation with allies, allowing the shock to be overcome and the possible gains maximized. With this trajectory, which focused on reducing dependence on the outside world and boosting domestic production, Moscow is now no more resilient, but also presents an economic model capable of achieving tangible results despite the Western blockade.
Second, developing financial alternatives to the Western SWIFT system:
Russia worked to build a parallel financial system so that it would not remain hostage to the Western system, and showed amazing economic flexibility, proving the bets of the International Monetary Fund, whose experts predicted a contraction of GDP by 8.5%, while the rate of contraction reached only 2.1% in 2022, before the output began to grow again by 3.6% in 2023 and 3.9% in 2024.
The most important means adopted by the Russian government to overcome Western financial dominance were as follows:
The SPFS (Russian Message Transfer System), which is the direct Russian alternative to SWIFT, started in Russia, then expanded to include banks from friendly countries, and currently includes more than 500 financial institutions inside Russia, and about 177 institutions from 24 other countries (including China, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and a number of Gulf and Asian countries), and although it is still much smaller than SWIFT, it covers most of the remittances with countries that do business with Russia heavily.
After Visa and Mastercard exited Russia in 2022, the MIR system became the main national alternative. Today, more than half of Russians use MIR cards daily, while outside Russia, MIR currently operates in about 10-12 countries (e.g. Turkey for a while and then discontinued, Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, Vietnam, partially South Korea, and some CIS countries). There are plans to add them in other countries such as Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Thailand.
The most prominent example of this is the 99% share of national currencies in Russian-Chinese trade, according to statements by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak last month.
Most oil deals with India are settled in rupees, rubles, or UAE dirhams, and very little is used in dollars; a large proportion of trade with Turkey, Iran, and some Gulf states is based on local currencies.
Third, build huge gold reserves and reduce dependence on the dollar:
Long years before the war in Ukraine, Russia made a strategic decision that "the dollar could be used against it one day," and began a systematic campaign to reduce dependence on it and boost reserves in gold and friendly currencies.
Beginning in 2008, Russia began a systematic campaign to fortify itself by buying huge quantities of gold every year, until its reserves this year reached more than 2,300 tons, according to data from the Russian Central Bank, the highest level since the collapse of the Soviet Union, placing Russia among the world's five largest countries in terms of gold reserves. In light of the continuous rise in the price of the precious metal, the value of these reserves has been estimated at hundreds of billions of dollars, which strengthens Russia's ability to Providing a "golden financial cover" and an independent economy, clearly reflecting its quest to reduce dependence on Western currencies.
Russia, meanwhile, has dramatically reduced its holdings of the dollar and the euro: from more than 40% in 2014 to just 16% for the dollar and less than 20% for the euro by the end of 2021, replacing them with gold and the Chinese yuan, which now account for about 17-18% of reserves.
So when the West froze $300 billion of Russia's central bank's assets in 2022, that figure represented only half of the total reserves that were about $630-640 billion, and the other part was gold stored inside Russia, yuan in Chinese banks, or other currencies that the West could not access. So the ruble didn't fall and the central bank didn't stop functioning as many in the West had bet.
Russia from Defense to Attack: Reengineering the Global Financial System
Western sanctions on Russia have gone from being a mere tool of pressure to a catalyst for building broad international alliances, aimed at reshaping the global financial system and making it more resilient to Western pressure. Moscow is now focused on neutralizing what it sees as America's economic weapons and other Western capitals, which are being used as pressure on any country seeking to maintain its political and economic independence.
Over the past two years, Russia has succeeded in signing a number of bilateral agreements with countries that are already affected by sanctions or have a principled position rejecting US economic dominance, as a strategic partnership agreement was signed with Venezuela in May 2025, during the visit of Venezuelan President Maduro to Moscow, and according to official statements issued after the signing, the two sides focused on strengthening oil and gas cooperation, and developing a "financial structure" independent of the Western system, including expanding the use of national currencies in bilateral trade, especially in the energy sector.
Moscow has also strengthened its relations with Belarus within the Eurasian Economic Union, signed a comprehensive partnership treaty with North Korea consisting of 23 articles, covering all forms of political, commercial and military cooperation, in addition to supporting Cuba by rejecting the new US sanctions on its regime in July 2025, and supported the UN resolution last month, condemning the US embargo imposed on Cuba since 1962, which is by the way Resolution 33, which Washington refrains from implementing.
As for Iran, the two countries signed a comprehensive strategic partnership agreement in January 2025, with the aim of improving relations, expanding economic cooperation, and mitigating the impact of US sanctions. According to a report by the TASS news agency earlier this year, about 96% of bilateral trade between the two countries takes place in national currencies, with trade growing by 15% to reach $4 billion. There are plans to bring the volume of trade exchange to $10 billion by 2027.
In the same context, relations between Russia and China represent one of the most prominent geopolitical alliances in the contemporary world, as it is described as the " no-limits strategic partnership", as announced by Presidents Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping in 2022.
These relations are based on common opposition to the U.S.-led international order, and cooperation between the two countries has witnessed a significant boost over the past period, as bilateral trade has reached record levels, rising by 60% between 2021 and 2024. Russia is China's main oil supplier, which has prompted Washington to threaten additional sanctions on Beijing over its cooperation with Moscow.
Internationally, Russia has pushed sanctions out of its bilateral framework with the West, turning it into a global issue related to the future of the international financial system. Moscow has not only responded to U.S. and European actions, but has sought to create an international consensus on the need to reduce Washington's ability to use the dollar as an economic weapon.
This trend was clearly evident at the BRICS 2025 summit in Brazil, where the final communiqué condemned the US sanctions, describing them as a threat to the stability of the global economic system.
Russia and Building a Parallel Economic Bloc
Russia is no longer acting alone in the face of Western financial dominance, but is part of a broad international movement led by a number of rising powers. This is reflected in encouraging countries to price oil and gas in their local currencies, establishing independent regional payment systems that do not pass through Western structures, developing alternative supply chains, and strengthening economic alliances within the BRICS and the SCO.
This growing cooperation has led to an unprecedented expansion of the BRICS to include oil, Asian, and African countries with independent financial and energy capabilities, a collective desire to reduce dependence on the dollar for energy and raw materials trade, in addition to coordinating positions within international institutions to impede U.S. financial pressures, and the emergence of a new discourse on "economic sovereignty" in the face of Western hegemony.
If these efforts succeed in building an economic bloc immune to U.S. sanctions, the international system will move toward fiscal multilateralism that breaks the monopoly of the dollar, the political leverage that sanctions give Washington will be weakened, and energy trade will undergo fundamental shifts as pricing in local currencies spreads. The rest of the world will also gain more room to maneuver between East and West. An alternative global economy, bringing together countries seeking to break free from the grip of the dollar and historically reshape the balance of economic power.