In July 2018, at a BRICS summit, the Russian President Vladimir Putin has condemned the decision of the United States to strengthen financial sanctions o Moscow as it has high potential to undermine the confidence in dollars. The Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also added that the decision will only threaten the potency of dollars as a global reserve currency.
However, some observers who were present at the summit could have considered the President’s claims invalid, seeing what he termed “a big strategic mistake” as a mere excuse to protect the country’s weak power compared to the United States and a way to strike back on Washington’s strength to increase the use of financial sanctions on the country.
