Pavel Zavalny, chair of the Russian State Duma's committee on energy, named China and Turkey as two such "friendly" countries because they are "not involved in the sanctions pressure" against Russia. The ruble's value has collapsed in response to the sanctions, which included the ejection of Russian banks from the SWIFT international payments system.

"We have been proposing to China for a long time to switch to settlements in national currencies for rubles and yuan," Zavalny said at a press conference on Thursday. "With Turkey, it will be lira and rubles."

"You can also trade bitcoins," he added.