In the hopes of pressuring Russia to capitulate, the United States implemented a series of punitive sanctions last year, freezing a whopping $300 billion of Russia's foreign currency reserves and booting major Russian banks from the interbank messaging service used for international payments, SWIFT.
Yet, these so-called "weaponisation" of the dollar resulted in an unintended consequence -- the emergence of alternative financial infrastructures championed by America's two biggest geopolitical rivals, Russia and China. In retaliation, these countries have taken it upon themselves to establish their own financial systems, threatening to undermine the global financial dominance of the US dollar. The year-long conflict between Ukraine and Russia has had far-reaching consequences, creating significant changes in economic, geopolitical, and cultural spheres worldwide.
