Putin de-dollarizes the world, provokes dollarized inflation, and shakes Biden in a year of war.

A year of war in Ukraine, where NATO/USA arms Zelensky to bomb and try to destroy Putin: who came out on top?

A visible result for humanity, beyond the cruel deaths caused by the Russian invasion of Ukrainian territory in the Donbass, Lugansk, and Doneseq regions, under the pretext of defending its territory populated by a Russian majority: a general disruption of the global economy.

For now, although Ukraine is devastated and Russia is not, there is no winner, nor any willingness to engage in dialogue, so the conflict is likely to deepen.

Or rather, it is deepening, since those most interested in its continuation are the United States, given that they are the ones who profit the most from its arms industry, while global instability and misery advance.

Uncle Sam is rallying to force, especially European allies, to go to war, with American capital financed by public debt that increases the profitability of Anglo-American financiers.

But the fact is that, so far, Uncle Sam's plan to sanction Russia in order to subject it to the dollar-sponsored economic blockade, in the name of supposedly strengthening democracy, has not worked.

Putin's Currency War

Backed by its real economic assets – minerals, oil, gas, food – on which Europe depends, Putin delivered a karate blow to the American currency, which is hegemonic in global relations.

The resulting shock to the powerful American economy shook the world economy and produced instability as the general norm.

The Russian leader decoupled the ruble from the dollar and demanded payment in rubles for Russian goods.

Therefore, during the first year of the war, Russian customers had to convert their dollar-denominated currencies into rubles, deposited in the Central Bank of Russia, in order to purchase the goods essential for their survival.

Putin learned from Colbert, the powerful finance minister of Louis XIV: the currency – public finances – he said, is the lifeblood of war, which, incidentally, is also Uncle Sam's teaching for maintaining the hegemony of the dollar since Bretton Woods in 1944, after the Second World War.

The difference now is that Russia, with its state-issued currency on which it pays no interest, is armed to the teeth to rival the United States, while at the same time allying itself, on the eve of war, with powerful China.

OPPONENTS ON THEIR KNEES

Putin's monetary strategy has brought Europe to its knees and shaken Washington.

Europeans – and the rest of the world – who buy oil, gas, minerals and food from Russia, priced in dollars, have been forced to submit to the monetary seigniorage imposed by Moscow.

The Russian Central Bank has, in practice, become the Chicago Stock Exchange.

Converting dollars to rubles has become mandatory.

As a result, Washington, having lost seigniorage over the circulating dollar after its issuance by the US central bank, saw its monetary power unintentionally produce global inflation. 

Russian customers, forced to use dollars to deposit them in the Central Bank of Russia in order to obtain the goods they need, have seen their reserves in US currency lose relative value due to the appreciation of Russian raw materials priced in rubles.

COMMODITIES VS. MONEY: WHICH IS WORTH MORE?

In the war in Ukraine, the exchange value is determined by the goods to be consumed, not by the currency used to acquire them, in the game of monetary warfare orchestrated by Putin.

Commodity prices rose on the international market above currency exchange rates, and inflation, fueled by de-dollarization, soared, exacerbated by the mandatory conversion to rubles imposed unilaterally by the Russian leader.

OLD CONTINENT COLONIZED BY THE DOLLAR

Europe has been doubly punished: the euro has depreciated globally and, furthermore, it is suffering an additional penalty because, in the face of American sanctions against Russia, it has had to buy gas, oil, and food at higher prices, especially from the United States.

The economically mined European landscape tends to transform into a stage for revolutionary struggles, fueled by rising unemployment and inflationary pressures. 

In practice, Europe is experiencing the financial torments imposed by the black market resulting from American economic and financial sabotage.

As the purchasing power of wages plummeted in Europe, inflation soared.

Inflation in Europe stems not from excess demand, but from the scarcity produced by war.

It's no coincidence, for example, that Brazilians who had moved to Portugal are returning in droves, fleeing hunger.

American pressure on Putin to set a limit on the price of commodities exported to the West was met with a sarcastic smile by Moscow.

The one who holds the power is the owner of the raw materials, who sets the price quoted in their currency, the ruble. 

NO LIGHT ON THE HORIZON

Raw materials appreciate in value relative to paper money, which is subject to speculation and abrupt devaluations, at the mercy of the waves of the sea that bring goods, as Shakespeare would say in The Merchant of Venice.

To secure itself economically and financially, Russia deepened trade relations with China, using local currencies, the ruble for the yuan and vice versa, in bilateral exchanges.

They, in turn, expanded throughout 2022, promising to continue, ever stronger, in 2023, keeping the price war alive and driving up prices.

At the same time, this example, given by the closer relationship between the two powers – commercial and arms-related – is influencing bilateral relations on a global scale.

The dollar's relative power to impose its hegemony has diminished, resulting in a weakening of American unipolar power and giving way to multipolar power, driven by Russia and China.

Will the United States persist with its strategy, which has proven useless to humanity, throughout the second year of the war that is now beginning?

"Everything that is useful is true; if it ceases to be useful, it ceases to be true." (Keynes)

Putin, who has just withdrawn from the nuclear agreement with the United States, says he will not loosen the reins until Zelensky lays down the weapons supplied by NATO and the US. 

A cloudy temple on the world stage.