Yuri Ushakov, Russian President Putin’s foreign policy adviser, briefed the press on the highlights of today’s summit discussion between presidents Putin and Xi Jinping. Ushakov emphasized that “particular attention was paid by the two leaders to the need to intensify efforts to form an independent financial infrastructure to service trade operations between Russia and China. We mean creating an infrastructure that cannot be influenced by third countries,” the Kremlin aide added.
There is particular urgency to this topic. The Biden administration, and especially war party fanatics such as Secretary of State Tony Blinken and Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland – the chief architect of the 2014 Nazi coup d’etat in Ukraine – have threatened to unleash all out economic warfare against Russia, using as an excuse a purportedly planned Russian invasion of Ukraine. There have been specific threats to even expel Russia from the SWIFT financial clearing house system, which is often referred to as “the nuclear option.” These threats date back to the first Biden-Putin summit in June 2021, and earliere.
