US dollar is Washington’s pressure lever to punish countries – Lavrov

Published time: 5 Sep, 2018 14:21

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© Vladimir Trefilov / Sputnik

The United States is manipulating its currency, the dollar, and uses it as a tool to exert pressure when it wants to punish someone, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

In an interview with Russian Channel One, he said that “Washington immediately stops servicing any banking operations in dollars in relation to both the country that they want to punish and any countries that continue relations with it.”

He added that “for decades, everyone hoped that the United States would scrupulously fulfill its duties as the issuer of the world’s main reserve currency.”

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“What is now happening to the dollar? Washington is manipulating the dollar at its discretion,” the foreign minister said.

While meeting with his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu, last month, Lavrov said that the role of the greenback as a global reserve currency may be diminished as more countries switch to national currencies in trade.

“Abuse, gross abuse of the role of the US dollar as a world reserve currency will cause its role to be weakened,” he said.

This week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called on global trading partners to smash the greenback’s “monopoly,” saying Ankara will pursue non-dollar transactions in trade and investment with other countries.