© Dado Ruvic / Reuters
Russia is working on ways to cut its dependence on the US and the dollar system, Lavrov said Friday during his visit to Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
"We are already drawing conclusions, doing everything necessary not to depend on the countries that are acting that way with their international partners," Lavrov said. According to the Russian foreign minister, US sanctions undermine global trust in the world's most used currency.
Lavrov was reacting to the fresh US sanctions against Russia introduced Thursday. 33 people and entities were added to the US Treasury blacklist of Russian defense and intelligence sector.
"More and more of our partners in Asia, in Latin America, start to draw the same conclusions [about the US dollar]. I think that this trend will only continue," Lavrov said.
In August, speaking on the same issue, Lavrov said that US sanctions are "illegal, they undermine all principles of global trade and principles approved by UN decisions."
Russia's leading banks have said that slashing the dependence from the US dollar is inevitable, but would be a tough challenge. "You cannot immediately abandon the dollar. Probably, impossible taking into account its role in the economy. But if we do not start, we will never come to this, so we need to start now and we are already doing such work," said Russia's second largest bank CEO Andrey Kostin last week.
Comment: Sanctions are one of the last means of destruction and coercion left to American exceptionalists. Their military is only good for attacking weak, third-world nations. Their regime-change efforts have failed in the last few years. No one really takes them seriously anymore. The only thing left is criminal sanctions. And that will only work for so long before target nations develop the means to work around the American-centered system. The U.S. had the chance to play nice and get along with other nations, but instead chose to take on the role 'exceptional' overseer. But such arrogance can only get you so far before the underdogs team up to take you out and put someone in your place who actually deserves it.