Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned 329 million Americans that their government is aiming to destroy the US dollar deliberately and deceptively.
“It seems to me that the United States is making a very big mistake by using the dollar as a sanctions instrument… by preventing payment in dollars for the sanctioned products,” Putin told CNBC’s Hadley Gamble on Wednesday.
Countries facing US sanctions, such as Russia, “have no choice but to switch to settlements in other currencies,” he said.
Gamble had inquired about the prospect of selling oil and gas using cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, which Putin dismissed as “too early” given to cryptocurrency’s volatility.
Russia has no plans to ditch the US currency, Putin noted, but “if the policy of the American authorities continues… then we will not have to do anything, the US will itself undermine confidence in the dollar.”
Rt.com reports: Even US allies were reducing their dollar holdings and reliance on US currency in mutual trade, the Russian leader pointed out. Not just because the dollar has been weaponized for sanctions, but also because Washington is devaluing the currency at home, by printing money and raising the national debt.
Everyone is now asking the question: what next? What will the US economic authorities do with this colossal debt? What will they do, carry out some manipulations with the dollar, lower its value?
The US is basically “sawing off the branch they’re sitting on,” Putin said, “by undermining the dollar’s dominance as the global reserve currency for the sake of short-term political gain at home, but harming their strategic economic interests” in the long term.
