MOSCOW, July 17. /ITAR-TASS/. Sanctions which the US has imposed against the NOVATEK gas company will make it harder to attract new credits but will not affect its current operations, Russian businessman Gennady Timchenko, who owns a 23% stake in the Russian gas producer.

On July 16, the US Department of the Treasury imposed a ban on issuing mid-term and long-term credits to NOVATEK, Rosneft, Vneshekonombank and Gazprom as part of the “third wave” of sanctions against Russia over the Ukraine crisis.

“These sanctions are not full. We have the right to work and sell our products both in the West and East,” Timchenko told ITAR-TASS admitting, however, that the US sanctions would certainly create financing problems for the company.

According to him, the problem is not so much in the inability by NOVATEK to borrow loans from US banks.

"We are constantly taking loans…But the problem is that European banks which are not obliged to comply with the (US) sanctions are afraid…afraid of the financial institutions,” Timchenko stressed.

“The thing is that the global financial system is based on the dollar, and it will continue to be this way for quite a long period of time. But the first signs that one day it may change are already appearing,” the Russian businessman went on to say.

“Perhaps, one day we are going to switch over to the yuan. China is a strong country, which can take up the torch from the United States,” Timchenko, who himself has been under the US sanctions since 2014, said.

He explained that individual sanctions imposed personally against him and sanctions imposed against NOVATEK will have different consequences for US citizens.

“In case of individual sanctions, Americans have no right to have any kind of contacts with me. However, sanctions imposed against NOVATEK will not apply to the company’s US staff,” Timchenko said in conclusion.