US pressure on Indian companies working with Russia includes direct threats. A number of Indian companies and banks have refused to cooperate, Russian Ambassador to India Denis Alipov said.
According to him, most Indian privately owned companies and credit institutions are incorporated into Western financial mechanisms, which involve the use of the SWIFT system, as well as the dollar and the euro as reserve currencies.
Meanwhile, a Russian correspondent bank that will be used for conducting trade with India in rupees can be announced in the next two weeks. According to Dr. A. Sakthivel, President of the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO), the rupee trade with Russia will start soon.
According to Deputy Head of Russia's Federal Customs Service, Vladimir Ivin, Russia's ten largest trading partners now include:
The United States dropped out of the top ten largest trading partners of the Russian Federation. The trade turnover between Russia and the United States has collapsed by 65 percent. The United Kingdom has left the top ten list as well, but France and India took their place. Although the EU countries have decreased in their trade turnover with Russia, they still make up a fairly large share as a block, and as a block they are even bigger than China.
Dollars and euros have now become meaningless for Russia's gold and foreign exchange reserves. However, in order not to fall into another dependance — this time on China — Russia should not keep the entire volume of its gold and foreign exchange reserves in Chinese currency, Andrei Stolyarov, deputy head of the HSE Financial Markets Infrastructure Basic Department told RIA Novosti.