Russian President accuses US of exploiting other economies for its own benefit thanks to dollar

Moscow: The US is using the dollar to take advantage of foreign economies, according to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Speaking at the VTB Investment Forum in Moscow on Wednesday, Putin said that the US’s adversaries had done much to weaken the dollar’s foundation as their global reserve currency.

“The US benefits much from the dollar’s usage as a global currency… The US continues to take advantage of other economies across the globe for its own gain because of the dollar. Prohibiting the use of dollars and not using them are two different things.

Four years have passed since the president-elect left the White House. During this period, the global economy and the US economy have seen certain adjustments. The dollar’s foundation as their worldwide reserve currency was seriously weakened by its adversaries. They carried it out on their own, utilizing the dollar as a weapon in a political or even military conflict to harm other nations,” he said.

Putin said that no one can forbid the adoption of innovative technology, using Bitcoin as an example. The United States cannot forbid anybody from using it.

“The US’s economic role in the global economy is declining, and the dollar’s impact on global economic processes is likewise declining… For this reason, we see (economic) processes that use additional tools. For example, who has the authority to ban the usage of Bitcoin?… or the use of further electronic settlement methods. Since these are new technologies and anything may happen with dollars, no one can forbid their usage.

These instruments will be used more often. It has nothing to do with Dollar. The United States will lose its economic hegemony if we see that the dollar is being used less often. We never objected to using money. We weren’t allowed to utilize it. We now need to consider our next course of action. They have too much self-confidence, which is undesirable. We should develop our foreign strategy based on an awareness of the processes that are taking place in the globe,” he said.

Putin went on to say that the US cannot reverse the policy of its own partners by cutting down on its currency and gold reserves.

“Even the US’s allies cut down on their gold and currency holdings in both dollars and euros. The decrease was around 13% during the previous ten years. The use of force or sanctions that are detrimental to the economy will not be able to reverse these developments,” he said.

Putin also highlighted India’s economic initiatives, especially Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Make in India” campaign, and praised the country’s leadership and administration for their efforts to provide “stable conditions” for SMEs.

On Saturday, US President-elect Donald Trump threatened to impose 100% tariffs on the BRICS countries, including India, and demanded that they make a firm pledge to neither develop a new currency nor support one that would replace the US dollar.

“The notion that the BRICS nations are attempting to abandon the dollar while we look on is OVER. In order to avoid facing 100% tariffs and having to bid farewell to selling into the fantastic U.S. economy, we need these countries to pledge that they will neither develop a new BRICS currency nor support any other currency to replace the powerful U.S. dollar. “Sucker!” they can go find another one. Trump said.