June 7, 2019
Editors’ note: as a service to consumers of US “mainstream media” who hear and see little but unremitting demonization of the Russian president, if his words are reported at all, we re-post this RT account of some things Putin said at the recent conference. Readers, please form your own opinion.
Vladimir Putin had a lot to say about the US at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), warning that Washington’s policies may turn the global economy into a battle royal and suggesting that the dollar’s role should be revised.
Even though the Russian president didn’t always identify the US or the Donald Trump Administration by name, he didn’t mince words about America’s aggressive economic policies either.
1. ‘US HEGEMONY CONTRADICTS THE AIM OF HUMANITY’S FUTURE’
Washington’s desperate attempts to maintain its hegemony on the international arena put the current globalist model of the world at risk of “turning into a spoof, a parody of itself,” the Russian president pointed out.
When universal international rules are replaced by laws; administrative and judicial mechanisms of a single country or a group of influential states, like the US is now doing by extending its jurisdiction on the whole world – such model contradicts not only the logic of international communications and the realities of the emerging multi-polar world, but more importantly – it doesn’t fit the tasks of humanity’s future.
2. ‘The US dollar is used as a pressure tool’
“Deep changes require adaptation of international financial organizations, reconsidering the role of the US dollar, which, after it became international reserve currency, turned into the tool of pressure of the country, which issues it, on the rest of the world today,” Putin said.
The US authorities “are themselves undermining their advantages created by the Bretton Woods system. The trust in the dollar is declining.”
3. ‘Turning global economy into battle royal’
Another negative outcome of the policy of sanction and pressure pursued by the US could be “the fragmentation of the global economic space; unrestricted economic egoism and attempts to push its own interests forward through force.”
This is the way to endless conflicts; to trade wars and maybe not only trade wars. Figuratively speaking, a fight without rules – a battle royal.
4. ‘Arm-twisting and intimidation’
The Americans and their allies got used to being privileged, but “when this comfortable system started shaking, when their competitors grew some muscle, the ambitions and the desire to maintain its dominance at all cost got the better” of the West.
“States that previously advocated the principles of freedom of trade, fair and open competition, started speaking the language of trade wars and sanctions, blatant economic raiding, arm twisting, intimidation, eliminating competitors by so-called non-market methods.”
5. ‘Waging the first technological war of digital era’
Putin delved into “the situation around the company Huawei,” which saw its products and services banned in the US over unsubstantiated claims of spying for the Chinese government.
“There are attempts being made not just to put it under pressure, but to brazenly force it out of the global market. In some circles, this is even called the first technological war of the coming digital era.”
The rapid digital transformation was seemingly aimed at “opening new horizons for everyone ready for change,” but the moves by Washington show that “barriers are being erected here too” and it’s a reason for serious concern.
6. ‘Not willing to pay its own bills’
The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline is also under fire from the US, despite being in line with the national interests of Russia and all participating European nations. “But it doesn’t fit the logic and the interests of those who got used to [their] own exceptionalism and permissiveness; who got used to their bills being paid by others.”
7. ‘ An unjust system will never be stable’
The US push for monopoly propels the problem of inequality to “a new level” both on state and individual level. “An attempt is being made to create two worlds, separated from each other by a constantly expanding abyss. When one has access to state-of-the-art systems of education and healthcare as well as to modern technologies, while the others have no perspectives, no chance even to get out of poverty, and a third group is simply left fighting for survival.”
Any system based on obvious injustice will never be stable and balanced.
