Sanctioned businessman Oleg Deripaska says the greenback has been used as weapon of retribution for way too long

The US dollar has only five years left as the principal currency for the global economy, according to Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska. He claims the greenback’s superiority has for way too long been used as a weapon of vengeance against all dissenters, and often without prior legal evaluation.

Seven years ago, the absolute dominance of the greenback in global settlements and financial transactions seemed unshakable, the founder of aluminum giant Rusal wrote in a Telegram post on Saturday.

Deripaska expects global settlements to become more diversified and for digital currencies to become more “compatible.”

“That will be hard at the beginning, but then the world will discover a new reality without a [need for] a hegemon,” he said.

Last week, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen admitted that Washington’s unilateral sanctions on countries around the world “could undermine the hegemony of the dollar.” However, a year ago she claimed the opposite, saying that the greenback didn’t have any serious competition, and was not likely to for a long time.

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Earlier this month, Ivan Chebeskov, who heads the Financial Policy Department at Russia’s Finance Ministry, said that interruptions and difficulties with international settlements became the most painful consequences of Western sanctions for the Russian financial system. He also highlighted that, at the same time, the problem had inevitably triggered an increase in settlements in alternative currencies.

In February, the Central Bank of Russia created a special department for handling issues arising in international settlements. The new body deals with the challenges “that have become particularly relevant in the context of sanctions,” such as the transition to settlements in national currencies.

Deripaska is among many Russian businessmen sanctioned in the past year by the US in response to Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine. He was forced out as CEO of Rusal after Washington targeted the company’s aluminum exports. He is worth $2.6 billion according to Forbes.