Putin claims that the US exploits the dollar as a weapon and demands for the implementation of a new monetary system.

  Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused the West of misusing the US dollar and using it as a tool in international relations to exert pressure on other countries. Putin told former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff at a meeting in St. Petersburg on Wednesday that developing an alternative to the dollar is an essential activity at a time when Washington is using the US currency as a weapon against other countries. Rousseff is the current president of the New growth Bank (NBD), often known as the BRICS bank, which was founded in the Chinese city of Shanghai to encourage multilateral economic growth in the BRICS nations, namely Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.

The BRICS group established the NBD in 2014 in order to move away from the US dollar in international commerce and introduce alternative currencies as a medium for financial transactions in international trade. In his discussion with Rousseff, Putin underlined the significance of creating a new monetary system, which may be accomplished through the growth of the BRICS bank. "I have no doubt that with your extensive government experience and knowledge in this field, you will do everything possible to further develop this institution, which I believe is critical today," Putin told Rousseff. The Russian leader stated that for this initiative to be successful, the world's existing financial conditions must alter.

"Under the current conditions, this is not an easy task considering what is happening in the financial world and the use of the dollar as a tool of political struggle," he said, adding that the economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa are not directed against anyone, but work together in mutual interests, including financial interests. Putin said that the BRICS member countries were already increasingly transacting in national currencies. Rousseff, for her part, agreed with the Russian president that this strategy should be adopted by developing nations in general, emphasizing the urgency of the problem.

 Previously, Rousseff indicated that the NBD was short on liquidity and that it intended to extend loans in the local currencies of its member countries, thereby abandoning the use of the US dollar in international commerce. "It is necessary to find ways to avoid exchange rate risks and other problems, such as dependence on a single currency like the US dollar," Rousseff stated on April 14 in an interview with the Chinese media source CGTN. Putin and Rousseff will meet ahead of this week's Russia-Africa conference in St. Petersburg.