VTB, a top Russian bank, has begun to make money transfers to China in yuan, bypassing the SWIFT global financial messaging system.

VTB CEO Andrey Kostin said in a statement, “The new reality is leading to a massive abandoning of the use of the US dollar and the euro in international payments. We are the first Russian bank to install an alternative cross-border bank transfer service with China and plan to increase the volume of these transactions by five times by next year.”

VTB noted in a press release that the maximum size of a single money transfer was going to be 20 million rubles, or about US$325,000, with a monthly maximum limit set at 100 million rubles, roughly US$1.6 million.

The bank noted it also has plans in the works to begin lending in yuan, and other non-Western currencies later in the year.

Kostin added, “The launch of the yuan transfer system is expected to significantly simplify the work of Russian companies and individuals with Chinese partners, increasing the popularity of the yuan in our country.”

Russia was cut off from the SWIFT system after sanctions were imposed on the country following the military actions initiated in Ukraine. Those limitations have forced Moscow to begin developing alternative systems for interacting with other nations who have chose to not partake in the sanctions regimes. This will likely leave the West with far less influence over the Russian Republic in the future.