In an effort to insulate the Russian economy from U.S. sanctions, the Kremlin has made "de-dollarization" a long-term priority, but will be forced to rely on the greenback for some time, according to economists.

Since 2013, the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) has been trying to reduce the number of transactions conducted in U.S. dollars, either for domestic payments or foreign trade.

Russia has repeatedly faced U.S. and EU sanctions since 2014 for reasons ranging from its annexation of Crimea to the poisoning of an ex-spy in the U.K. as well as online meddling in the 2016 U.S. election.

A key reason for its emphasis on de-dollarization is that U.S. sanctions are extra-territorial — they target all companies using the U.S. dollar or operating stateside subsidiaries. Ditching reliance on the dollar is therefore seen as a way for Russia to circumvent sanctions, according to Agathe Demarais, Global Forecasting Director at the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).

"De-dollarization could benefit the euro and yuan above all, and the CBR is also increasing the share of its assets that are held in these two currencies," Demarais told CNBC via email.

In order to pre-empt potential sanctions that cut Russia off from international financial channels (such as SWIFT), Russia has also created a domestic bank payment system, Mir (which means both "peace" and "world" in Russian).

It has also escalated efforts to sign currency swap agreements, which enables direct trade between two countries in local currencies, instead of the usual reliance on U.S. dollars.

"Unsurprisingly, Russia has concluded currency swap deals with countries that currently have poor relations with the US, including Iran, Turkey and China," Demarais added.