Friday, April 1, 2022

International Monetary Fund Warns Russian Sanctions Will Undermine U.S. Dollar Global Dominance as Trade Currency


Comrade rebels, the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Deputy Managing Director says the sanctions against Russia are likely to undermine the US dollar’s global dominance as a trade currency.

As we have outlined, this is ultimately the counter strategic goal of Russia and Putin’s economic allies.  It’s a feature, not a flaw, in the process that Joe Biden has triggered.

(Inside Paper) – […] “The dollar would remain the major global currency even in that landscape, but fragmentation at a smaller level is certainly quite possible,” Gopinath said in an interview with the Financial Times.  She went on to say that some countries have already begun to renegotiate the currency in which they are paid for trade.

According to Gopinath, the drastic restrictions imposed by Western countries in response to Russia’s military operation in Ukraine may result in the formation of small currency blocs based on trade between individual groups of countries.  Furthermore, the use of currencies other than the dollar or the euro in global trade would result in a further diversification of central banks’ reserve assets. (read more)

This outcome, in combination with the realization the western alliance will also necessarily lose leverage for their climate change goals, is ultimately what triggered the G7 energy ministers to demand that Russia continue using euros and dollars.

The efforts of NATO and the western alliance to crush the Russian currency have failed.  The Russian ruble currency has jumped back from the sanctions and is now even stronger than before the sanctions were put into place.  Now, with demands that Europe pay for oil and gas in rubles, Europe and the western alliance find themselves in a position of vulnerability.

With China and India supporting ongoing trade with Russia, and with Saudi Arabia responding coldly to the U.S. working on a deal with Iran for nuclear weapons, the geopolitical strategy of NATO, G7 and the proverbial western alliance increasingly looks like it will backfire.

Meanwhile, Putin’s domestic favorability within Russia is climbing as the Wall Street Journal noted:

(Wall Street Journal) – President Vladimir Putin’s approval rating in Russia has soared since he launched his invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24—to 83% from 71% last month—according to independent Russian pollster Levada Center.

Surveys by Levada Center and state-backed pollsters indicate that around two-thirds of Russians back Mr. Putin’s war, which the Kremlin refers to as a special military operation. Experts have cautioned against taking current Russian polls on face value, given that Russian authorities have pursued a crackdown against dissent, including a media blackout of any reports contrary to the Kremlin’s narrative about Russia’s actions in Ukraine.

Mr. Putin’s approval rating had for the past few years hovered in the 60s, according to Levada, which has tracked the longtime Russian leader’s rating since he became prime minister in 1999.

[…] Levada, which was designated a foreign agent by Russian authorities, also found that the percentage of Russians who believe the country is moving in the right direction increased since the war began: 69% of Russians now believe Russia is headed in the right direction, compared with 52% in February and 50% in January, the poll showed. (link)

Who knew fracturing the globalist ‘new world order‘ alliance would be so popular?  Apparently, the timing was perfect.

When you consider the same leaders within the western alliance have been acting as authoritarian dictators for the past two years, with their COVID rules, mandates, fiats and unilateral decrees that undermined the “democratic norms and rule-based order” they claimed to represent, it is not a surprise to see them standing naked to their enemies.

The western leaders have no credibility to stand atop their soapboxes and rail against autocracy when they have been acting like autocratic dictators for the past two years.   Their proclamations are falling on the deaf ears of the citizens they abused.

Embracing tyranny has consequences.