Russia is increasingly confident that deepening economic and diplomatic ties with China and the Global South will allow it to challenge the international financial system dominated by the United States and undermine the West, according to Kremlin documents and interviews with Russian officials and business executives.
Internal Russian Security Council documents obtained by a European intelligence service and reviewed by The Washington Post, show that the Kremlin convened meetings in 2022 and 2023 on ways to undermine the dollar’s role as the world’s reserve currency.
The belief that Russia has proved more militarily and economically resilient than the West anticipated has consolidated Putin’s domestic standing ahead of a presidential election in March, particularly with certain members of the Russian elite who have shown long-standing skepticism about the war in Ukraine and initial concern about the impact of Western sanctions.
While most of the West still hopes for a return to the previous order, the senior European security official said, Russia’s billionaires “have understood that the old life is finished and now is the time to create a new future.”
With a host of elections taking place in Europe this year, the State Department has warned that Russia will conduct “information operations” aimed at further undermining Western support for Ukraine.
“Russia is hoping that the number of elections in Europe this year could change what has been a remarkable coalition and disciplined opposition to its war,” James P. Rubin, U.S. special envoy and coordinator of the department’s Global Engagement Center.
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