Global Times: Putin's ultimatum and US actions hit the dollar hard

The current situation is an example of how Moscow, by requiring the West to pay for gas only in rubles, strengthened its economy, and some anti-Russian moves by the United States prompted other countries to start abandoning the dollar, writes the Chinese Global Times.

"Such a bold measure (Russia's ultimatum) immediately helped to stabilize the value of the ruble and significantly mitigate the negative impact of Western sanctions," the publication says.

In addition, the actions of the US authorities - the freezing of Russian assets and the wrong monetary policy - also play against the US currency, the article notes.

The idea that the US could seize the assets of anyone who refuses to bow to Washington's dictates is indeed unnerving and encourages more countries to diversify their reserve assets away from the dollar.

According to the authors, the US Federal Reserve only cares about the interests of America and Wall Street investors, and the US central bank has often been wrong lately, provoking ups and downs in liquidity and inflationary crises.

Thus, the unprecedented Western sanctions imposed on Russia, including restrictions on its Central Bank, now increasingly threaten to weaken the dominance of the US dollar and could lead to even greater fragmentation of the international monetary system, the material concluded.