GROZNY, July 17. /TASS/. Russia sees the desire of other countries to arrange payments in national currencies and through new instruments, in particular within the BRICS framework, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said this in an interview with TASS General Director Andrey Kondrashov on the sidelines of the Caucasus Investment Forum.

"Now many countries see the United States’ behavior towards many countries <…>. Therefore we need to create in advance safe tools and mechanisms so that we can carry out foreign economic activity without looking at any momentary desires and actions of one of the countries, which today is the holder of the reserve currency. We see this change. We see this attitude on the part of many countries. There is a desire to build partnerships on a new mechanism, on settlements in national currencies, to create new instruments, both as part of BRICS and as part of bilateral relations. It is clear that this is not a momentary action, for this we need to create the appropriate payment infrastructure, but nevertheless we are moving towards it," Novak said.

The Deputy Prime Minister stressed that sanctions restrictions on payments only spoil the image of the dollar as a reserve currency.

The Caucasus Investment Forum is underway in Grozny, Russia’s Chechen Republic, from July 15 to 17. Its program includes more than 60 events, a series of lectures and workshops. TASS is the general media partner of the event.