People look at fireworks above Saint Basil's Cathedral during the 'Spasskaya Tower' international military and music festival on the Red Square in Moscow on August 26, 2017. AFP Contributor | AFP | Getty Images

U.S. sanctions on Moscow are starting to hurt America more than Russia, the chief executive of Russia's sovereign wealth fund told CNBC Wednesday. "Of course, we believe sanctions are wrong, and particularly U.S. sanctions, because they really undermine (the) U.S. long term," Kirill Dmitriev, the CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund said, speaking to CNBC at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland. "Basically, we see lots of people moving away from (the) dollar, because lots of dollar transactions are getting restricted, and I think the U.S., by focusing so much on short-term pressure, and short-term competitive pressure, on Russian gas and other things, it is really undermining its own long-term fundamentals, you know, things that held the world together, such as (the) dollar, fair trade practices, and fairness," he said.

In Europe, and despite criticism from nations such as Greece and Italy, the EU extended its current set of economic sanctions on Russia in December until July 2019. The EU and U.S. sanctions target Russia's financial, energy and defense sectors in the main. Latter sanctions were also imposed on government officials, entities and institutions deemed to be close to President Vladimir Putin. Russia retaliated against sanctions with tit-for-tat measures and embarked on a policy of import substitution although it experienced recession amid an oil price slump in 2014. While a recovery in oil prices has been seen since a trough in early 2016, they remain volatile, hurting the outlook for the major oil exporter. As such, Russia's economic outlook is lackluster with 1.6 percent growth forecast by the International Monetary Fund in 2019 and 1.7 percent in 2020. Dmitriev said that Russia had adjusted to the sanctions regime. "Russia really adjusted to sanctions, the economy is growing at 2 percent and oil prices are stable. So frankly it's a way of doing business now and people are used to it," he noted.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin (L) and Russian Direct Investment Fund CEO Kirill Dmitriev during a meeting with Russian Direct Investment Fund experts and representatives of international investment community at Konstantin Palace. Mikhail Klimentyev | TASS via Getty Images