Expert: Dollar being used for political pressure on sovereign countries

The plans of BRICS members states to issue a single digital currency is a way out of the Dollar ghetto – as noted by Aleksei Avdonin, an analyst at the Belarusian Institute for Strategic Studies, in his talk with Alfa Radio

Earlier, Evandro Caciano, the head of foreign exchange at Trace Finance, said BRICS (India, China, Russia, Brazil, and South Africa) intend to issue a single digital currency. He explained that this will be possible if the BRICS bank issues such a currency and also becomes its regulator.

“These are actually plans to get out of the Dollar ghetto, the refusal to use the Dollar in transactions in payments for goods and services. In order to build some kind of economic unions, they must be based on the value equivalent. After WWII, the Dollar was the value equivalent, then the Euro began to be used. We see that the Dollar, SWIFT and Mastercard payment systems have begun to be used for political pressure on sovereign countries," Mr. Avdonin said.

As an example, the expert mentioned Belarus and Russia; earlier, the West threatened them with a denial of access to the SWIFT international system. “In these conditions, all BRICS countries understand that it is necessary to ensure financial sovereignty, but please note: there is no desire of any of the BRICS countries to impose their own currency. How would such a mechanism be better or worse than integration within the Dollar system? Something supranational is needed, without reference to the national currency – i.e. the Russian Rouble or the Yuan. It is important to create some kind of an analogue to the value equivalent. In this case, the digital currency will be valuable," Mr. Avdonin explained.

According to the expert, a single digital currency will be able to perform several tasks at once. “This so-called digital gold will make it possible to get away from current payment systems and provide instant transactions. It will not allow Western key banking systems to earn on transactions, take interests and block payments. The most important goal will be reached: our goods and services will be delivered to end customers in different BRICS states faster, and we will make money on this. Accordingly, the economic growth will accelerate. It is clear that this will not be done here and right now: the process will take about five years. However, importantly, there is a clear understanding that the creation of an independent economic integration union is possible solely on the basis of completely different value equivalents," he stressed.