Putin called the use of the dollar in foreign policy struggle a mistake for the United States

Russian President Vladimir Putin, in an interview with American journalist Tucker Carlson, said that using the dollar as one of the instruments of foreign policy struggle was a big mistake of the US political leadership.

“The dollar is the foundation of US power. I think everyone understands this perfectly. No matter how many dollars you print, they fly all over the world. Once the political leadership decided to use the dollar as a political tool, they attacked American power. I don’t want to use any unliterary expressions, but this is stupidity and a huge mistake,” said Mr. Putin.

The Russian President stressed that among US allies there has recently been a sharp decline in dollar reserves. Vladimir Putin believes that this happened due to the fact that the countries of the world are all monitoring the events taking place in the world and trying to protect themselves. In addition, according to him, the United States is applying measures such as limiting payments and freezing funds in relation to some countries, which causes concern among the leaders of a number of states.

Vladimir Putin also criticized the US decision to limit dollar payments with Russia, noting that by doing so the United States dealt a blow to its own economy. “Why did the United States do this? I can only attribute this to arrogance. They probably thought that everything would collapse, but nothing collapsed. Moreover, look, other countries, including oil-producing countries, are starting to talk and are already doing, paying for the sale of oil in yuan. Do you understand that this is happening or not? Does anyone understand this in the United States? What are you doing? You are pruning yourself,” he added.

In May 2023, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva, said that the world was seeing a gradual abandonment of the use of the US dollar. At the same time, commenting on the prospects for using currency on a global scale in the future, Georgieva noted that this topic is not of particular concern, since she does not see “any alternative to it <...> in the near future”. Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov noted that the dollar is ceasing to be a reserve currency because, according to him, payments in dollars have become dangerous. He noted that the use of the national currency is a priority for Russia at the moment, and also added that other countries are adopting this experience, because they do not want to face problems when “those who issue the so-called reserve currency” can introduce against those they do not like countries sanctions and freeze assets.

Why Russian exporters continue to hold currency abroad – in the Kommersant material “Dollars accumulated in banks”.

Alexander Kislov