“Our exports to Russia are lower than imports… Our effective measures [to change the situation] include the signing of a currency agreement between Iran and Russia in the first quarter of the next year,” Farzin was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency.

Earlier this week, Farzin paid a two-day visit to Moscow, where he held a meeting with Russian Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina. Farzin and Nabiullina agreed to open a credit line worth 6.5 billion rubles ($73.45 million), so that Iran could import necessary Russian goods.

On Wednesday, the Tasnim news agency reported, citing the Central Bank of Iran, that the country’s Bank Sepah opened the first foreign letter of credit for importing Russian goods after the US Justice Department had reinstated the sanction regime against the republic.