Putin's recent remarks at the Valdai International Debate Club meeting made people feel that he really changed his tone this time. In the past few years, he has always said that he wants to get rid of the shackles of the US dollar and push BRICS countries to use local currencies for settlement. This time, he directly said that Russia has not engaged in any de-dollarization campaign at all, and there is no anti-US dollar policy. It is purely because the West has blocked the door of US dollar payment that it has to trade with other people's currencies in rubles. As soon as this came out, there was a lot of discussion in the world. Some people thought that Russia was giving in, while others said that it was a smart move to leave some way out. To tell the truth, this matter looks simple. Peel off a layer of skin, and it is full of contests between China and the United States on the financial chessboard. What about Russia? At best, he can be regarded as a pioneer, but he is not the real protagonist with thunder.

First of all, we must start with the 2014 Crimean incident, when the Western countries dropped a bunch of sanctions against Russia, frozen assets, cut off the link between banks and the SWIFT system, which is equivalent to throwing Russia¡¯s money bags to the ground and friction. The Russian economy in those years was bad, the rubles devalued, the imports costed a lot. Putin saw that the dollar hegemony was not a good thing, it was not just a trade tool, or a knife in the hands of the United States, who wants to cut off who. Since then, Russia has begun to drink everywhere to dollarize, to find BRICS partners to play with the currency. In 2022, the conflict in Ukraine, the sanctions escalated, Russia came to be stronger, directly signed with the Chinese agreement, bought natural gas

But the reality is harsher than the plan. The Russian economic structure is too single, focusing on energy and military industry, the financial market is not deep enough, the international recognition of the ruble is low. It wants to be the dollarization leader sheep, but the bottom can not follow. In the BRICS countries, China, India, Brazil, South Africa, each has a calculator. China and the United States trade volume is huge, and the dollarization will hurt themselves; India and the United States relationship is ambiguous, energy imports can not be separated from the dollar price; Brazil and South Africa economy size is small, followed by confusion and fear of shipwreck. So, the BRICS summit opened another round, screaming loud, the actual landing is so little step, such as the Chinese-Russian yuan, the Indian-Russian trial of

This time, Putin¡¯s statement at the Valdey conference, the time is right. On October 2, 2025, the meeting in Sochi on the Black Sea, was originally the Russian year¡¯s diplomatic drama, but he chose to put a soft speech here. Why? on the one hand, the Russian economic pressure is great. Over two years, sanctions, energy exports are blocked, inflation is high, Putin must stabilize the domestic people¡¯s hearts, can not paint the big bread. On the other hand, the international wind has changed. After Trump came to power, the U.S. threat to the BRICs is very straightforward, saying that if you engage in new currencies, it will add 100% tariffs. This sounds like crazy, but the U.S. has the power, the U.S. dollar is the global reserve currency, accounts for

Russia is indeed like a cover in this scene. It was at the forefront and received the most sanctions, but it was unable to dominate the overall situation. If we really want to talk about the driving force of de-dollarization, we still have to look at China and the United States. Take China, for example, is playing much more steadily. Since 2010, we have begun to promote the internationalization of the RMB, step by step. First, we signed local currency swap agreements with dozens of countries, which is equivalent to providing spare wallets for all countries; then we built the CIPS system and built our own payment highway, with transaction volume exceeding 100 trillion yuan in 2024; then we tested the waters of RMB pricing on commodities such as oil and iron ore. The Brazilian Rial Fund, the iron ore transactions between China and BHP Billiton are all settled in RMB. This is not to replace the US dollar overnight, but to allow the international currency basket to have more options and not put eggs in one basket. China's economy is large, its total trade volume ranks first in the world, and its foreign exchange reserves are firmly at the top. If it moves, global finance will shake three times. But China is also smart and knows that the US dollar will not be able to take root in the short term, so it feels the stones to cross the river, advancing without being radical.

The US Federal Reserve raised interest rates, hot money returned, devalued the currency of developing countries, but its own economy was profitable. In the past few decades, the US relied on the dollar privilege, printed money to buy global things, deficit yearly pile, debt piled to $35 trillion. But this privilege also caused trouble, manufacturing outflow, domestic industry emptiness. Some US politicians even wanted to actively devalue the dollar, promote manufacturing industry return, this idea sounded tough, and self-decommissioned. But after Trump came to power, more directly, the tariff giant swelled, raised on China, threatened the BRICS. This is not only an economic war, or geopolitical sign.

This Chinese-American game, Russia stuck in the middle, retreat two difficult. It wants to borrow the power of China, China is also happy to use the Russian energy to settle the yuan, but the US glance, Russia will have to measure. BRICS summit in Brazil in July 2025, Putin did not go personally, video link, discuss the real currency financing window what, the communique emphasized diversification of payments, but did not extract the dollar. Indian attitude is ambiguous, Putin tried to invite it, now estimated a little regret, India energy imports 40% from Russia, but do not want to completely stand. Brazil and South Africa follow China closer, but small scale, limited influence. The entire BRICS is like a loose alliance, thought, multi-stage confusion, Russian pioneer role like more and