Paulo Batista has told RT that Washington’s “abuse” of financial instruments via sanctions is driving the rest of the world away from the greenback
The US is the main enemy of the dollar, prominent Brazilian economist and former International Monetary Fund (IMF) executive director, Paulo Nogueira Batista Jr., has told RT.
He said in an exclusive interview with RT that Washington has increasingly weaponized its national currency, eroding trust in the greenback and the broader Western financial system.
“The main enemy of the dollar and of the international payment system controlled by the West is the US itself,” Batista said. “There is a shift away from the dollar, from US Treasuries, largely due to the abusive use by the US of instruments like SWIFT, of reserves.”
He said the “most notable case” of such abuse is Russia, which saw around $300 billion in Central Bank reserves frozen in the West under sanctions imposed after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022. Beyond the asset freeze, the US and its allies removed most Russian banks from the SWIFT interbank messaging system and imposed full transaction bans on key financial institutions, effectively isolating Russia from the dollar- and euro-dominated Western financial system.
According to Batista, 2022 was a turning point when de-dollarization and the move away from US-linked financial institutions – already slowly underway – accelerated.
“Countries like Russia and China, and also Iran, had already faced sanctions or fears of sanctions from the US… But this was a watershed because of the scale of Russia’s reserves and the assets frozen. Since 2022, major central banks, such as China’s, are moving away from US Treasuries,” he said.
The dollar’s share of global foreign exchange reserves has been steadily decreasing over the past four years. Russia has essentially phased out Western currencies in trade with CIS and BRICS nations, which have been doing the same with their other partners. Looking ahead, Batista said that while the greenback will remain an “important” global currency, the move away from the dollar will continue and its “hegemony” will gradually weaken.