Both facing pressure from Washington, Moscow and Ankara ditched the US dollar when finalizing their landmark S-400 air defense missile systems deal and will do so in the future, Russian leader Vladimir Putin said.

 

“We understand that if we’ll make transactions in [US] dollars, they won’t come through,” Putin told reporters on Wednesday, citing his recent talks with Turkey’s leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan. “So we thought up another option.”