Washington DC:

Donald Trump has sniffed trouble brewing afar against the United States – one that may topple the US’s position as a dominant global power and end Washington’s ability to impose economic sanctions against those it deems fit for the case. The storm in question is the steadily-expanding BRICS+ grouping.

Within hours of taking office as President of the United States, Donald Trump went after the BRICS+, threatening to impose 100 per cent tariffs on member countries. The reason Washington feels threatened by the grouping is because it makes the US dollar, America’s greatest weapon – one it can actually use, vulnerable.

In recent times there have been reports of a possibility of the BRICS+ nations working on a common currency which would replace the US dollar for international trade. The founding members of the BRICS are Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa – the acronym of which is BRICS. Over the years, several other countries have become members of the bloc, namely Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Indonesia. Saudi Arabia has accepted the membership, but has not formally joined yet, saying that the matter is under consideration.

BRICS+, which is shaping up to be the developing world’s alternative to the West-led G7, has set up its own financial structure and institutions, and is cooperating economically and diplomatically to reduce its dependence on the US Dollar – the default currency for international trade.

Donald Trump has now said his administration will impose 100 per cent tariffs against countries of the BRICS+ bloc, should they take any steps to replace the US dollar. “If the BRICS nations want to do that (replace the US dollar), that’s okay, but we’re going to put at least a 100 per cent tariff on the business they do with the United States,” President Trump told the international media shortly after his presidential inauguration.

“They will have a 100 per cent tariff if they so much as even think about reducing the use of the US Dollar in global trade,” he threatened.

Less than a month before he took office, Mr Trump had made a similar reference warning the BRICS+ countries. “We require a commitment from these countries that they will neither create a new BRICS currency, nor back any other currency to replace the mighty US dollar or, they will face 100 per cent tariffs and should expect to say goodbye to selling into the wonderful US economy,” Donald Trump, then President-elect, had warned in December.

HOW THE US DOLLAR IS WEAPONISED IN SANCTIONS

The US Dollar, has for decades, been the world’s principal reserve currency. It has been the case since the Second World War, following which global institutions like the United Nations, World Bank, and International Monetary Fund, among many others were set up. All these institutions were set up in the United States – And America being the largest trading country of the world at that time led to US Dollar becoming the default currency for global trade.

In 1973, a new system was set up to moderate international transactions. This system is known as SWIFT, which is short for Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication. Since then, this has become the world’s commonly accepted and standardised model for international money transfers.

According to its website, SWIFT is a member-owned cooperative connecting more than 11,000 banks, financial institutions and corporations in more than 200 countries and territories. SWIFT is neither a payment nor a settlement system, and is therefore is not regulated as such by any of the world’s central banks.

SWIFT is overseen by the central banks of G10 nations – namely, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, United Kingdom, United States, Switzerland, and Sweden.

Since the US Dollar is the default currency of trade globally, and SWIFT is the method or channel of settlement, sanctions are imposed by controlling these two. Sanctions are imposed via SWIFT by restricting access to the network or completely prohibiting individuals, institutions, and countries from using its services. When sanctions are imposed, it completely freezes an account and restricts any further transactions from it.

SWIFT sanctions can freeze any bank’s ability to transact with the rest of the world. Under an international rules-based order, much of the global financial governance is dominated by the US-led West.

MULTI-POLAR WORLD

In the 21st Century, with the rise of Asia, and economies like China, India, Russia, Indonesia, UAE, Saudi Arabia, and others, the world has become much more multi-polar, instead of being bipolar – which was the case during the Cold War between the US and USSR through much of the 20th Century, post the two world wars in the first half of the century.

Brazil in South America and South Africa in Africa were also rising global economies.

With time, emerging economies became increasingly disgruntled with the dominance of the US Dollar being the default in almost all global transactions. This also kept them under a constant threat of Western sanctions, should they not two the line. To deal with this, BRICS leaders have for long reportedly advocated for de-dollarisation, and been in favor of increased trade in local currencies and even reportedly explored the possibility of a potential common BRICS currency.

The BRICS members have even set up the New Development Bank (NDB) and the Contingent Reserve Arrangement or CRA – which act and function exactly like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund or IMF, respectively.

The so-far 10-member BRICS+ grouping already comprises nearly half of the world’s population and over a third of the global economy. It also has more than 25 per cent of the world’s landmass, produces more than 30 per cent of the world’s oil output and is on track to surge ahead of the G7 economies in less than 20 years.
 

Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Moscow:

A Russian oil tanker carrying thousands of tonnes of oil products split apart during a heavy storm on Sunday, spilling oil into the Kerch Strait, while another tanker was also in distress after sustaining damage, Russian officials said.

At least one person was killed.

The 136-metre Volgoneft 212 tanker, with 15 people on board, was split in half with its bow sinking, footage published by state media showed, with waves washing over its deck.

The Russian-flagged vessel, built in 1969, was damaged and had run aground, officials said.

“There was a spill of petroleum products,” said Russia’s water transport agency, Rosmorrechflot.

A second Russian-flagged ship, the 132-metre Volgoneft 239, was drifting after sustaining damage, the emergency ministry said. It has a crew of 14 people and was built in 1973.

Both tankers have a loading capacity of about 4,200 tonnes oil products.

Official statements did not provide details on the extent of the spill or why one of the tankers sustained such serious damage.

The vessels were in the Kerch Strait between mainland Russia and Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, when they issued distress signals.

Russia said more than 50 people and equipment, including Mi-8 helicopters and rescue tugboats, had been deployed to the area.

Russia’s Kommersant newspaper reported that the Volgoneft 212 tanker was carrying about 4,300 tonnes of fuel oil.

Unverified video posted on Telegram showed some blackened water on stormy seas and a half-submerged tanker.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

An overnight attack by Russia targeted energy facilities in Ukraine’s western Rivne and Ternopil regions, local officials said on Tuesday (December 3, 3024).

The head of Ternopil’s regional defence headquarters, Serhiy Nadal, said a drone struck an energy facility, leaving part of the city without power.

Rivne Governor Oleksandr Koval said emergency services were working on site and reported no casualties.

Russia’s Government has lifted a temporary ban on gasoline exports for producers but extended the restrictions for other exporters of the fuel until Jan. 31, 2025, it said on Saturday (November 30, 2024).

The initial ban on gasoline exports was set to expire at the end of this year.

“The decision was taken to maintain a stable situation in the domestic fuel market, support the economy of oil refining, and counteract grey exports of motor gasoline,” the statement says.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov visit the Russian Special Forces University in Gudermes, Russia.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday made an unscheduled trip to Chechnya, a mainly Muslim republic within the Russian Federation, his first visit in nearly 13 years, as Ukraine’s stunning cross-border incursion into western Russia entered its third week.

Mr. Putin was greeted by Chechnya’s self-styled strongman leader Ramzan Kadyrov, before visiting a special forces academy bearing his own name and speaking with volunteer fighters who train there prior to being deployed in Ukraine.

Mr. Putin praised the volunteers and said that as long as Russia has men like them, it will be “invincible,” according to reports by Russian state agencies.

Mr. Kadyrov said in a post on his official Telegram channels that more than 47,000 fighters, including volunteers, have trained at the facility since Moscow began what it calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine.

Fighters from Chechnya, whose bid for independence after the Soviet Union’s collapse led to years of war with Russian government forces, are participating on both sides of the conflict in Ukraine.

Pro-Kyiv volunteers loyal to Dzhokhar Dudayev, the late Chechen pro-independence leader, are the sworn enemies of Chechen forces that back Mr. Putin and Mr. Kadyrov. The latter joined Russia in the months-long siege of Ukraine’s key port of Mariupol and other flashpoints in the country’s south and east.

Also on Tuesday, Mr. Putin visited the grave of Mr. Kadyrov’s father, former Chechen leader Akhmat Kadyrov, a command post and a mosque in the local capital, Grozny.

At the end of the day, he held talks with the Chechen leader, who announced the republic has “tens of thousands” of reservists ready to fight the Ukrainians, according to Russian state media reports. The reports did not specify whether any of these might be sent to repel Kyiv’s incursion into the Russian region of Kursk.

The Kremlin has relied on Mr. Kadyrov to keep the North Caucasus stable following years of turmoil. International rights groups have accused Kadyrov’s security forces of extrajudicial killings, torture and abductions of dissenters, but Russian authorities have stonewalled repeated demands for investigations.

The Kremlin scrambled fighters from Chechnya to help protect Moscow from an abortive mutiny launched by mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin last year, but some commentators warned that Mr. Kadyrov’s ambitions could also potentially pose a threat to federal authorities.

As of Tuesday evening, neither the Kremlin nor Kadyrov shared any details about the purpose and timing of Mr. Putin’s unexpected visit, with Mr. Kadyrov saying only that “a busy schedule” awaited the Russian leader.

Mr. Putin later held talks with Mr. Kadyrov at the Chechen leader’s residence in Grozny.

Before his surprise visit to Chechnya, Putin was earlier on Tuesday in Beslan, a town in the Caucasus province of North Ossetia, where he had his first meeting in nearly two decades with mothers of children killed in the 2004 school attack by Islamic militants that left more than 330 dead.

At the meeting, he slammed Kyiv’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, accusing the Ukrainians of “trying to destabilize” the country.

“We will punish the criminals. There can be no doubt about that,” he said.

Moscow:

The third stage of Russia’s non-strategic nuclear exercises has begun, which focuses on the preparation of units for the combat use of non-strategic nuclear weapons, the Russian Ministry of Defense said on Wednesday on its Telegram channel.

It said that the exercises involve the central and southern military districts as well as the Aerospace Forces, Xinhua news agency reported.

“As part of this stage, personnel from the missile formations of the central and southern military districts will work on training and combat tasks, including receiving special training munitions for the Iskander-M operational-tactical missile systems, equipping missile carriers, and covertly moving to designated positional areas to prepare for electronic launches,” said the ministry.

It added that personnel from the aviation units of the Aerospace Forces involved in the exercise would practice equipping aviation strike assets with special warheads and flying to designated patrol areas.

Earlier, as part of the first and second stages of the exercise of non-strategic nuclear forces, issues of preparing units of the southern and Leningrad military districts, units of the Aerospace Forces and the navy for the combat use of non-strategic nuclear weapons were worked out.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Toyota president Akio Toyoda was one of the executives banned from entering Russia. File.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Russia has banned the head of Toyota and 12 other senior Japanese business figures from entering the country, prompting a protest by Tokyo on July 24.

The list published by Russia’s foreign ministry on Tuesday includes Toyota chairman Akio Toyoda, Rakuten chief Hiroshi Mikitani and Akihiko Tanaka, president of the government-backed Japan International Cooperation Agency.

The decision was a “response to Japan’s ongoing sanctions against our country in connection with the special military operation”, the foreign ministry statement said, using Moscow’s term for its invasion of Ukraine.

It did not explain how individuals were chosen for the list, which did not include the heads of major Japanese firms like Mitsubishi, Honda and Sony.

Japan has strongly backed the Western position on Ukraine, providing Kyiv with financial and material support and sanctioning Russian individuals and organisations.

Japan’s pacifist constitution restricts it from exporting weapons, but in December, Tokyo loosened arms export controls to enable it to sell domestically made Patriot missiles to the United States.

The move was aimed at replenishing U.S. inventories of the air defence missile systems that have run low because of supplies sent to Ukraine.

“Measures announced by Russia this time will restrict fair activity by Japanese companies, and are absolutely unacceptable,” Japanese government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi said Wednesday.

He said Tokyo had lodged a protest and that “all of our sanctions stem from Russia’s Ukraine invasion, which is a clear violation of international law.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin embrace during an informal meeting at Novo-Ogaryovo residence, outside Moscow, Russia, on July 8, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

The United States has raised concerns with India about its relationship with Russia amid Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, a U.S. State Department spokesperson told reporters on Monday in response to questions about a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

India has faced pressure from the West to distance itself from Moscow after Russia invaded Ukraine. New Delhi has thus far resisted that pressure, citing its longstanding ties with Russia and its economic needs.

ALSO READ: PM Modi in Russia LIVE updates

Mr. Modi met Mr. Putin in Russia on Monday in the Prime Minister’s first visit since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. In a post on social media platform X, the Prime Minister said his talks with Mr. Putin “will surely go a long way in further cementing the bonds of friendship” between the two countries.

“I will look to Prime Minister Modi’s public remarks to see what he talked about but as I said, we have made quite clear directly with India our concerns about their relationship with Russia,” a State Department spokesperson said in a press briefing.

“And so we would hope (that) India and any other country when they engage with Russia would make clear that Russia should respect the U.N. Charter, should respect Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

ALSO READ: PM Modi’s Moscow visit: Five areas to watch closely

Russia has been India’s largest weapons supplier since the Soviet Union days. However, India has also been seeking other options, as the Ukraine war hobbled Russia’s ability to supply munitions and spares.

Washington in recent years has looked to woo New Delhi, with political analysts saying the U.S. sees India as a counter to China in the Asia-Pacific.

While the West has tried to isolate Putin, China, India and powers in the Middle East, Africa and Latin America have continued to build ties.

File picture of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with President of Russian Federation Vladimir Putin
| Photo Credit: V.V. Krishnan

The Kremlin said on Tuesday that the final details of a visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Russia were being worked out, and that deepening trade and economic cooperation would be one of the key themes of the visit.

The Kremlin has yet to announce the dates of the visit by Mr. Modi, though a Russian state news agency reported last month that the visit would take place in July.

“I can only confirm once again that the visit is in the final stage of preparation,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “A very important visit.”

ALSO READ: When Modi goes to Moscow | The View from India

Mr. Peskov said that regional security and global security issues were always high on the agenda of such meetings.

“In addition, our trade and economic cooperation is also one of the main issues that is being discussed, the most diverse areas of cooperation that we intend to develop, for which there is mutual political will,” Mr. Peskov said.

“This is the main thing.”

Mr. Peskov said that Mr. Modi and Mr. Putin had a “very trusting” relationship.