Melkulangara Bhadrakumar, an Indian expert on international security issues, said that the creation of a single currency would simplify and expand the economic relations of the countries participating in the grouping.
NEW DELHI, June 14th. /tass/. The decision of the Group of Seven (G7) to allocate $50 billion to Ukraine from profits from frozen Russian assets by the end of 2024 will accelerate the formation of an independent payment system by the BRICS countries and the use of a single currency. This opinion was expressed by Indian diplomat, international security expert Melkulangara Bhadrakumar.
"G7 decisions on the use of Russian assets will accelerate decision-making in the BRICS on the single payment system and currency," he said. According to Bhadrakumar, it would be interesting to see how the G7 leaders explain to the third countries invited to the G7 summit, mainly from the BRICS, that Russia is an exception and such a practice will never be used against India, Turkey, Saudi Arabia or any other state.
"Of course, the ghost of the 16th BRICS summit, which will be held in Kazan on October 16-18 under the chairmanship of Russian President Vladimir Putin, haunts the Big Seven. Moscow has made it clear that if the last three years have ended with the expansion of the BRICS, then a new stage in the future will ensure that participants create a viable structure in an expanded format," the expert noted. As he pointed out, "an important topic of the BRICS summit in Kazan will be the creation of a single currency within the group, which will significantly simplify and expand the economic relations of the participating countries against the background of increasing pressure from the West."
"There is no doubt that the G7's attempt to embezzle Russian money from Western banks was bad enough, but using the profits received from them to finance Ukraine's needs is, to put it mildly, an act of robbery," the Indian expert believes.
Russian assets
The European Union, Canada, the United States and Japan have frozen Russia's assets in the amount of about $300 billion after the start of a special military operation. Of these, about $5-6 billion is located in the United States, and most of it is in Europe, including at the Euroclear international site in Belgium ($210 billion is stored there). The European Commission earlier approved a proposal to use the proceeds from blocked Russian funds to help Kiev. American President Joe Biden signed a package of bills providing for further major military assistance to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, as well as the confiscation of Russian assets frozen in the United States, at the end of April.
According to Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, Moscow will immediately take retaliatory steps to confiscate its assets in the West, and there is a whole arsenal of retaliatory political and economic measures. She called the West's intentions to use the proceeds from frozen Russian assets in favor of Ukraine cynical and criminal.
brix
At the plenary session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, the President of the Russian Federation announced that Russia is working on creating an independent payment system within the framework of the BRICS, which will not be subject to sanctions or any other pressure.
BRICS will pay special attention to increasing the share of national currencies in mutual settlements and creating an independent, equally accessible financial infrastructure.
