The end of the dominance of the US dollar is nigh as the Chinese yuan rises and the rest of the world sees the peril of the West's failed attempt to bring Russia to its knees over Ukraine, one of Moscow's most powerful bankers told Reuters.

It seems that the internationalisation of the renminbi is well underway.

US-led international sanctions on Russia have begun to erode the dollar's decades-old dominance of international oil trade as most deals with India - Russia's top outlet for seaborne crude - have been settled in other currencies.