MOSCOW, October 7. /TASS/. De-dollarization does not imply refusal of the dollar, CEO of Russia’s VTB bank Anderi Kostin said on Sunday.

"Several words have been said about the refusal of the dollar. I would like to say that, first, no one is speaking about the refusal of the dollar. Moreover, the so-called de-dollarization program does not envisage any restrictive, the more so, prohibitive measures in respect of the dollar neither for people nor for corporations," he told the Tolstoy. Sunday program on the Rossiye-1 television channel.

In September, Kostin said he thought it was inevitable for Russia and other countries to switch to the use of national currencies in mutual settlements instead of the US dollar if the United States kept on using its currency as a "weapon." He unveiled a de-dollarization plan providing for the swift transition to the use of other currencies (euro, yuan or ruble) in export and import transactions, as well as for transferring Russia’s biggest holding companies to the Russian jurisdiction.

On October 3, Russian Minister of Economic Development Maxim Oreshkin said that his ministry jointly with the finance ministry and the Bank of Russia had already drafted their proposals on the de-dollarization of the Russian economy.