SAMARKAND, April 14. /TASS/. The flight from the US dollar as the medium of exchange in mutual payments in favor of national currencies is an irreversible trend in global trade, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a press conference on Friday.
The top Russian diplomat also underscored the importance of making a concerted effort to neutralize security threats, including those emanating from the United States, in cooperation with CIS countries. Russia has factored in attempts by the West to foment conflicts near its borders in formulating its military, political and diplomatic plans, Lavrov stressed.
"We are starting to see a flight from the dollar. So far, it is not all that swift, but it is sure to accelerate. In fact, this trend is irreversible. The US has already, for real, sawed off the tree limb that it was perched on, managing global financial flows and the world economy as a whole by leveraging the dollar’s dominant role," the foreign minister said.
"Despite the threats that our partners have received from the US and the European Union not to cooperate with the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus under pain of so-called secondary sanctions and other penalties, trade flows across the CIS are growing. [Trade] edged up by more than six percent last year, amounting to over $100 bln," Lavrov said.
"The agreement on free trade in services among CIS countries that is currently being readied for signing will give an impetus for further expansion of economic interaction," he noted.
"The path of sanctions is the path to nowhere. Serious countries [and] sober-minded politicians are drawing relevant conclusions and these conclusions are definitely in favor of terminating dependence on the West," Lavrov concluded.