The Russian president says Moscow will cooperate with its partners to develop a safe system for international settlements
The US and other Western currencies will inevitably lose their leading position in global cross-border transactions, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday.
Delivering his annual address to the Federal Assembly, the head of state said that Moscow would cooperate with its allies to build a secure system of international settlements that are not dependent on the dollar or the euro.
According to Putin, the current policies of Western states are causing the US dollar and the euro to lose their universality in international payments.
He explained that Russia’s former Western partners are forcing Moscow to cut settlements in dollars and other Western currencies.
In December, Putin stated that the share of ruble transactions in Russia’s foreign trade had doubled since the beginning of 2022, and now accounted for one third of the country’s settlements. He projected that the use of national currencies in place of the US dollar and euro in trade with Russia’s international partners would continue to grow.
The process of de-dollarizing the Russian economy started back in 2014, when Western nations introduced the initial sanctions against Moscow over Crimea’s reunification with Russia, which was formerly part of Ukraine. Sanctions imposed since the start of the military operation in Ukraine have sped up the process, particularly after over $300 billion in Russian foreign exchange reserves and other assets were frozen by the US and its allies.
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China has suspended several 2025 export controls on strategic materials — including rare earths, superhard materials, and lithium batteries – for a year. Is this a concession to the US, or a move in a far more complex game?
"The first aim of China’s export controls was to consolidate its leverage in negotiations. The second was to establish a long-term framework for managing such controls," says Yana Leksyutina, deputy director at the Institute of China and Contemporary Asia, Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS).
Сhina could activate this mechanism at any moment, and now everyone knows it’s a lever it holds, she explains to Sputnik.
Balancing the Mineral Market
"The moratorium on export bans to the US essentially resets the rare earth market to where it was previously," Jeff J. Brown, author of 'The China Trilogy' and founder of Seek Truth From Facts Foundation, tells Sputnik.
In the meantime, there will be a global rush by the US and its NATO allies to acquire as many rare earth ...
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – The impact of the ongoing federal shutdown on the US economy is far worse than expected because it is lasting much longer than anticipated, White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said on Friday.
"The impact on the economy is far worse than we expected, because it's gone on for so long," Hassett told Fox Business. "I think we were thinking that we could have at least 3% [GDP] growth in the fourth quarter. I think now we're expecting something like half that because of the harm [caused] by the Democrats' policy.".......more here
https://sputnikglobe.com/20251107/federal-shutdown-hitting-us-economy-harder-than-expected--white-house-1123074810.html
Dozens of Palestinians, foreign activists, and journalists have been wounded as Israeli army-backed settlers carried out coordinated assaults across the occupied West Bank.
The attacks took place on Saturday, with the biggest number of the casualties, namely 17 people, being caused after settlers raided the outskirts of the Abu Falah village, northeast of the city of Ramallah, the Palestinian Wafa news agency reported. Those injured included foreign activists.
According to the agency, settlers also torched a home, while Israeli forces attacked the area, targeting the residents, who had gathered near the scene. The latter incident, though, did not lead to any casualties.
In another wave of violence, settlers launched attacks on Palestinian farmers, journalists, and foreign activists participating in the annual olive harvest across several towns, leaving many with fractures and bruises.
The attacks were most severe in Beita, south of Nablus, where settlers descended from nearby outposts and ambushed ...
