Though many have asserted that U.S. sanctions against Russia are hastening the emergence of a new anti-dollar monetary system, Russian President Vladimir Putin insisted recently that this is not the case. In an interview on Russia-24 television on March 26, Putin was asked if his discussions with President Xi of China about the expanded use of the yuan in foreign trade, were an attack on the dollar, as some in the West insist.

According to a translation by Gilbert Doctorow, Putin responded: “No. It is not true that we are attacking the dollar. We would use the dollar but they do not let us have them… The USA themselves sawed away the branch on which they were sitting. By restricting the use of dollars on the basis of the momentary considerations of a political nature, they have done harm to themselves. The fact that they froze our gold and currency reserves: the whole world was watching and thought about this, about just how reliable their American partner is. And they all came to the same conclusion: America is not reliable.”

Putin’s remarks undermine the beliefs of those on the left who have gleefully cheered on the moves away from the dollar as harbingers of a new anti-American bloc that will set up a new non-dollar monetary system—and equally those on the right who have been screaming for more sanctions and military action to prevent Russia, China and the so-called Global South from replacing America’s leadership in the world economy.

This is not to say that if the U.S. continues its self-defeating policy of sanctions, bailouts, and anti-productive economic policies such as the Green New Deal and woke government programs, that the dollar’s role as the global reserve currency isn’t threatened. If that continues, the dollar’s viability will certainly be diminished, which would inflict great damage to the U.S. real economy as well as the rest of the world. This author laid this out at greater length in my recent post on this website: An Alternative to the Confidently Forecast Collapse of the Dollar System - LaRouchePAC.

Continued U.S. suicidal policies will lead nations to seek alternative means to conduct trade among themselves. But that is more likely to lead to a global financial and economic collapse than to a new monetary system.

Better that Americans fight to change U.S. policy. Even Putin seems to agree.