Russia wants to make its new Mir payment system compatible with China's UnionPay to prevent Western financial sanctions, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said in an interview published on Friday.

 "We are currently considering ways of harmonizing our national payments systems; both the card that we are going to issue, the Mir card, on the one hand, and the UnionPay system, on the other hand. We believe that this would enhance the reliability of financial settlements," Medvedev told China Central Television as quoted by Reuters.

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Medvedev said that this proposal would cut the Russia's dependence on Western-dominated payment systems including the SWIFT, which is one of the world's largest financial messaging systems.

"I believe that the use of the yuan in mutual settlements, the use of positions opened in yuan and rubles, mutual financial transaction technologies, and the use of co-branding cards - all of this is very useful for our countries," Medvedev said, adding that such cooperation is deemed useful as no one can block the development of financial traffic.

Earlier this year, Russia launched its Mir national payments card after Western systems such as MasterCard and Visa cut off their services to several Russian banks including private lender Bank Rossiya the Fine Extra reported.

The services were reportedly halted as part of the United States and European Union sanctions for Russia's illegal Crimea annexation from Ukraine and support for separatists in eastern Ukraine, according to Reuters. Other than that, the US and EU also implemented visa bans and asset freeze, which will allegedly affect the country's entire economic sectors once the country decides to escalate the crisis.

TagsMir Payment system, Russia's Mir Payment system, China UnionPay, UnionPay, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, payment system