Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that Moscow should consider limiting exports of uranium, titanium, and nickel in retaliation against the West.

“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 in televised comments at a government meeting.

Russia is the world’s fourth-largest uranium producer, according to the World Nuclear Association’s data. 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 United States and China topped the list of Russian uranium importers, followed by South Korea, France and Kazakhstan, and Germany.

Russia is also the world’s third largest producer of titanium sponge which is turned into metal for industrial applications in aerospace, marine, and auto industries but has law titanium mineral reserves of its own.

Russia’s Nornickel is the world’s largest producer of refined nickel.