Sanctions might hurt the currency, the US Treasury secretary acknowledges.

Janet Yellen, Secretary of the Treasury, was asked by CNN's Fareed Zakaria about the effectiveness of Washington's anti-Russia sanctions and about Washington's track record of what he described as the "weaponization of the dollar". Yellen acknowledged that use of financial sanctions could undermine the hegemony of the dollar in the long run, but promised that Washington was using this "important tool" judiciously and with the backing of its allies. She added that the role of the American greenback is explained by factors such as the volume of the US treasuries market, its wide use in international trade, and a "rule of law" in the US that other nations cannot offer. Opponents of US domination in global finances are not necessarily advocating replacing the dollar with another currency serving the same role. Russia's leadership has prioritized a transition away from the dollar and into regional currencies.

The West's use of sanctions against Russia, such as bans on trade, seizure of national reserves and denial of financial services, has only sped up the transition. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov noted that the talk about a switch to national currencies has been spurred now, as nobody knows who the US president could find unappealing after getting up on the wrong side of the bed. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen also mentioned the issue of frozen Russian assets in her interview with CNN, arguing that Russia should pay for the damage it has done to Ukraine.