Countries cannot rely on the currency of a nation with multi-trillion-dollar debt, Sergey Shoigu has said
Washington’s abuse of the dollar is a major selling point for BRICS, which is fostering the transition to a multipolar world order, Russian Security Council Secretary Sergey Shoigu has said.
America’s control over the global reserve currency and the financial system based on the dollar has increasingly been unnerving other nations, as the US government has leveraged it to damage other countries with sanctions and asset seizures, he claimed.
”It is [now] obvious for everyone that whatever savings they have may end up in someone else’s pocket rather than their own,” Shoigu said in an interview published by Russian media on Tuesday.
Governments therefore “realize that they need to go away from the US-dependent financial system. There is a need for a structure that would not be so monopolized and dependent on US domestic laws,” he added. The current system “cannot stand.”
Russia was targeted by the US over the Ukraine crisis, when some $300 billion worth of its sovereign assets held in Western jurisdictions was frozen. This instance alone shows that “the world should move away from the dollar,” Shoigu said, but it is just one of many.
He cited the seizure of Libyan funds during the NATO military intervention to oust Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. There is also ongoing exploitation of Syrian oil reserves by shady US-linked firms in Kurdish-controlled areas of the country, Shoigu said. Those firms sell “stolen” crude, while Damascus is starved for fuel due to American sanctions, he continued, adding that Western nations are “occasionally acting like vulgar thieves.”
The US federal debt, which surpassed $35 trillion earlier this year, is another reason to worry about the reliability of international finances, Shoigu claimed. Such problems push more nations into seeking BRICS membership, he said, because “here we don’t have some hegemonic power towering over everyone and dictating terms, as this happens in the EU and NATO.”
READ MORE: Washington wants Ukraine’s resources – US Senator
Shoigu also suggested that the excessive global role of the US is detrimental for policy making by other nations. Foreign governments have to tailor their decisions to projected outcomes of US presidential elections and occasionally have to turn on a dime, when some surprise happens, such as Donald Trump’s victory in 2016, he explained.
https://www.rt.com/russia/603758-us-monopoly-global-finances/
BEIJING (Sputnik) - China has begun operating the world's first intelligent ultra-large oil tanker powered by methanol, the China Central Television (CCTV) reported on Monday.
The tanker, designed to transport crude oil, was successfully put into operation in the city of Dalian in China's northeastern coastal province of Liaoning, the report said. State-owned company Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Co Ltd independently designed and built the vessel, it added.
The tanker is approximately 333 meters (1,092 feet) long and can carry around 2.1 million barrels of crude oil, the CCTV reported. Designed to produce low emissions and having intelligent control capabilities, the tanker will serve the route to the Middle East, among others, according to the report.
The vessel is powered by a dual-fuel methanol engine, which reduces carbon dioxide emissions by 92% compared to conventional fuel, the CCTV reported. It is equipped with an intelligent ship platform, an intelligent liquid cargo ...
A car bomb has killed a senior General Staff member, officials have confirmed
Source: The Investigative Committee
A Russian general has been killed in a car bomb blast in Moscow, the Investigative Committee has reported.
Officials identified the victim as Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov, head of operational training at the General Staff. According to the statement, an explosive device had been planted beneath the vehicle he was traveling in, and detonated on Monday morning in the southern part of the Russian capital.
The blast also damaged several other vehicles and seriously injured Sarvarov’s driver, media reports stated.
Russian officials said one line of investigation is an assassination carried out by Ukrainian intelligence services, noting that Kiev has previously used explosive devices in targeted killings of officials and public figures.
Last December, a bomb hidden in an e-scooter killed Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, commander of Russia’s Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Defense ...
The Israeli regime appears to be laying the groundwork for a permanent military presence in large parts of the Gaza Strip, according to a new satellite imagery analysis that documents extensive construction, infrastructure expansion, and continued destruction of Palestinian property since a ceasefire took effect in October.
Research released by Forensic Architecture, a multidisciplinary research group, and published by the Drop Site News outlet on Saturday showed that the regime had built at least 13 new military outposts inside Gaza since the ceasefire came into force on October 10, while accelerating the expansion and consolidation of 48 existing outposts.
The findings suggested that Israeli forces were not merely holding temporary positions, but physically reshaping the territory in ways consistent with long-term control.
The analysis, based on satellite images from October 10 to December 2, indicated that the regime now maintained a dense network of military infrastructure east of...
