Kremlin economic aide Sergei Glazyev said on Tuesday that Russia will reduce its economic dependency on the United States if Washington decides to impose sanctions against Moscow over the issue of Ukraine.

“We would find a way not just to reduce our dependency on the United States to zero but to emerge from those sanctions with great benefits for ourselves,” Glazyev said, adding that Russia could stop using dollars for international transactions.

“An attempt to announce sanctions would end in a crash for the financial system of the United States, which would cause the end of the domination of the United States in the global financial system.”

The comments came a day after US President Barack Obama threatened Russia with sanctions.

If Russia continues its deployment of troops in Ukraine’s Crimea, the United States will take a “series of steps – economic, diplomatic – that will isolate Russia and will have a negative impact on Russia’s economy and its status in the world,” Obama stated.

In an interview with a US news network a day earlier, US Secretary of State John Kerry also warned Russian President Vladimir Putin over the deployment of Russian troops to Crimea, saying Russia could be ousted from the G8 developed nations if it continues on present path.

Kerry also threatened that Washington could target Russia’s state-run financial institutions and freeze assets of top-ranking Russian officials involved in the Crimea crisis.

Moscow’s military deployment to Crimea comes after Russia’s parliament gave the green-light to president Putin to use military forces to protect its interests in the Black Sea territory.

SHI/SHI