Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that Moscow should consider limiting exports of uranium, titanium and nickel in retaliation against the West.
In televised comments to government ministers, he said such restrictions could also be introduced for other commodities, and noted that Russia was a major producer of natural gas, diamonds and gold.
But he said that measures did not need to be taken "tomorrow", and must not cause damage to Russia itself.
"Please take a look at some of the types of goods that we supply to the world market... Maybe we should think about certain restrictions - uranium, titanium, nickel," Putin told Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin.
"We just mustn't do anything to harm ourselves," he added.
Russia is the world's fourth largest uranium producer, according to the World Nuclear Association's data. U.S. President Joe Biden has signed into law a ban on enriched uranium imports from Russia, a trade worth around $1 billion annually.
In 2023 the U.S. and China topped the list of Russian uranium importers, followed by South Korea, France, Kazakhstan and Germany.
Russia is also the world's third largest producer of titanium sponge which is turned into metal for industrial applications in the aerospace, marine and auto industries, but has low titanium mineral reserves of its own.
Russian mining giant Nornickel (GMKN.MM) is the world's largest producer of refined nickel.
The U.S. last month imposed sanctions on several subsidiaries of Nornickel, as well as on the Bystrinsky copper and gold project, which Nornickel controls.
