Moscow, Mar 31 (IANS): Sanctions against Russia could undermine the global dominance of the US dollar, according to Gita Gopinath, the First Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

"The dollar would remain the major global currency even in that landscape, but fragmentation at a smaller level is certainly quite possible," Gopinath said in an interview with the Financial Times, RT reported.

She added that some countries are already renegotiating the currency in which they are paid for trade.

Russia and India are currently preparing a rupee-ruble mechanism which would allow them to trade in national currencies while evading the dollar.

According to Gopinath, the radical restrictive measures introduced by Western countries amid Russia's military operation in Ukraine could lead to the emergence of small currency blocs based on trade between individual groups of countries.

Furthermore, the use of currencies other than the dollar or the euro in global trade would lead to further diversification of the reserve assets held by the central banks.

A new financial order will be negotiated in the world, and the West won't have the main say in it anymore, ex-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has claimed.

The "hellish" sanctions imposed on Russia by the US, EU, and their allies over the conflict in Ukraine have failed to cripple the country, but are instead "returning to the West like a boomerang", Medvedev, who is now the Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council, said, RT reported.