Russia’s Medvedev Urges New Payment Methods for Trade, New Reserve Currency

July 12, 2022 (EIRNS)—In his characteristically biting fashion, Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chair of Russia’s Security Council and former President and Prime Minister, had choice words for the European politicians who stupidly took orders from London and Washington to impose “crazy” sanctions on Russia but “shot themselves in the head” when those sanctions boomeranged and badly damaged European economies. Writing in his Telegram account, (in Russian) on July 12, as quoted by Republic World, Medvedev also echoed earlier comments by President Vladimir Putin, who told the BRICS Business Forum on June 22 that BRICS countries were working on reliable alternative payment mechanisms for international settlements and that the creation of an international reserve currency based on the basket of the BRICS currencies was also under consideration.

On the day on which the euro and the dollar reached parity on the Moscow Exchange, indicating how far the euro has declined, Medvedev wrote that the “best protection against the rotting euro will be the transition to new payment methods in trade with our reliable partners, including through the use of national currencies—the Russian ruble, the Chinese yuan, the Indian rupee, etc. In the future, it is also possible to establish a new reserve currency of the BRICS countries. The dollar, euro, and pound sterling are clearly not enough for the modern world.”

Medvedev spared no words in describing how EU members have shot themselves with the “sanctions pistol ... reaping the bitter fruits of a decline in production, postcritical inflation in food prices, the loss of competitiveness of their goods and expectations of a winter in freezing ice houses without our gas.” Sanctions slapped on Russia were ill conceived, didn’t work, and only ended up harming the Europeans themselves, Medvedev argued. “So the euro is weakening.” In Sputnik’s translation, Medvedev accused Washington and London of “breeding” European politicians like “shell game con artists,” treating them like “useful European idiots,” who can do their bidding. “But they are not at all sorry, since it was the Russophobes from the EU who unleashed a hybrid war with Russia and opened a wide economic front against us,” he points out, continuing: “However, the solvency of Europe worries us little. We need to deal with the adaptation of our economy to the new very difficult conditions. Solve problems in industry, including securing technological sovereignty. There is still a lot to do here....”

And concludes with the punchline: “For now, $1 = €1. Keep savings in rubles!”