(Bloomberg) -- Russia is exploring whether to link the value of the ruble to gold and other commodities, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. 

“This question is now being discussed,” Peskov told reporters on Friday. The idea was raised publicly by Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev in an interview with a state-run newspaper this week, Peskov said, offering no further details.

Unprecedented sanctions on Russia’s central bank over the invasion of Ukraine deprived it of access to about half of its holdings, leaving it in possession of only gold and yuan. Before the war, President Vladimir Putin repeatedly argued that Russia needs to cut dependence on the dollar as a global reserve currency.

Speaking with Rossiyskaya Gazeta, Patrushev said experts are examining proposals to back the ruble’s value with gold and other goods as part of an alternative system of finance that guarantees a measure of sovereignty and reduces the link to the dollar.

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