The UK and the US has imposed a fresh ban on imports of Russian-made metals. Trading of Russian aluminum, copper and nickel is prohibited at the London Metal Exchange and Chicago Mercantile Exchange, triggering concern in the global metals market. Dr. John Gong, a China Forum expert and vice president for research at UIBE Israel shared his take on this with Sputnik.

The new sanctions will be counterproductive: it cannot effectively curb Russia, and may strengthen economic cooperation between Russia and China and other non-dollar trading countries, which will weaken the Western economy in the short term and pose a threat to the dollar's international status, said Gong.

He pointed out that, compared with the West, China enjoys a small discount on metal prices asked by Russia. Though often portrayed as China providing some kind of support to Russia, this simply implies a normal trading relationship in civilian areas as China stay committed to a principled neutrality position.

Amid Russia’s comprehensive countermeasures against US and European sanctions, global de-dollarization is accelerating. Professor Gong underscored that Russia is a major world supplier of key commodities and trading these commodities in currencies other than the dollar obviously undermines its importance in global trade. But this situation is Washington’s own creation, he told Sputnik.