Glazyev Notes the Shift to Trade in National Currencies Has Been ‘Staggeringly Quick’

Russian economist Sergey Glaziev

Sept. 6, 2023 (EIRNS)—In a lengthy Sept. 4 interview with the Sevastopol news portal ForPost, the prominent Russian economist Sergey Glazyev noted that “the transition to national currencies was forced to happen staggeringly quickly,” in response to the dollar being used as a weapon of hybrid warfare against Russia and other countries of the Global Majority. This is a positive development, Glazyev noted, but “in itself, the transition to settlements in national currencies is only a small element of economic security.”

“The new world economic order,” he continued, “will be based on the unification of countries around a common criterion for the growth of people’s well-being, and in international cooperation—around mutual benefit, which is achieved through a synergistic effect, a combination of competitive advantages.”

The pressing issue, in Glazyev’s view, is to provide cheap credit for productive investment. This applies to Russia, the BRICS, and the Global Majority in general. “If we talk about BRICS, then this is a rather amorphous structure that does not have its own executive body…. The countries agreed that they would jointly implement common investment projects in certain areas. But so far, their scale is small.”

He pointed out that the correct financial policies to facilitate this are being carried out by China and India—two countries which, Glazyev has stated in earlier comments, have broadly followed the physical economic policy approach prescribed by Lyndon LaRouche.

“Both China and India maintain currency controls. There is no free convertibility of currencies on capital transactions. Free trade is not a rigid principle for China and India. And both countries do not insist on the liberalization of partner countries’ markets. Moreover, they allow a great degree of protectionism and protection of national interests.”

Russia, on the other hand, has not adopted these policies, Glazyev insisted.

“All these methods, which provided the Chinese and Indian economic miracle, are not used in our country…. [Instead], the Washington Consensus still dominates, which rejects all these instruments of economic regulation for the sake of the interests of international capital. They, in fact, form the basis of macroeconomic policy up to the present day…. Russia’s economic breakthroughs in any period of history were preceded by cheap loans—and now they are not.

“Inflation targeting, the free float of the ruble, the liberalization of foreign exchange regulation, the freedom to export capital—this is all for foreign capital to feel good. As well as a tight monetary policy, so that the country does not have internal sources of investment lending and thus becomes attached to the interests of international capital….

“For our Central Bank, the main goal is to ensure the interests of currency speculators and large banks. And these interests of the monetary and financial community impose on the Central Bank a refusal to issue targeted credits. As a result, our economy is drawn into a speculative whirlwind, when the main and most profitable source of income is currency speculation, focused on manipulating the ruble exchange rate. Money is being pulled from the real sector of the economy to the monetary and financial sector,”