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Comment by ainar-g | Hacker News Reader

Um, no. I am Russian, and I live in Russia. Whether I like it or not, I hear the state propaganda every day. I probably should have mentioned that.

Putin and his, erm, colleagues constantly use “multi-polar world” and “prevention of (implied US-American) hegemony” as a reason for their actions. This includes the desire to make Russian Rouble one of the world's currencies.

If anyone, I am extremely tired of US-Americans blaming their poor policies on “The Russians”, but in this case, the possibility of US Dollar losing some of its value does indeed align with the Kremlin's wants.

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One theory might be that it could be good for Russia for a certain period of time, up until Russia's currency was so successful that it did indeed threaten the US hegemony. But having the world order tilted back that way could cause tremendous economic problems for the United States as well as putting pressure on the US-centric military apparatus to maintain its hegemony. It could even lead to a war between major powers.

Its almost like the bully being afraid to take his foot off of his victim's neck because he might get up and then he has to actually fight him. I think the reason other countries may not be anxious to push things is because a global war is probably going to be much worse for them than just having a weaker currency and less resources etc.

The other aspect is that it seems like history very commonly ends up in a situation like this with hegemonic powers (otherwise known as Empires). So for now people some people may hate the United States, but sooner or later people will be resenting the Chinese or the artificial superintelligence that starts controlling everything. Personally the current paradigm benefits me so I hope it will continue for awhile, and that we can arrive at the next one without too many people dying. It would be nice to imagine an equitable world, but that doesn't seem feasible given the preponderance of propaganda despite democratized instantaneous mass communications.

> up until Russia's currency was so successful that it did indeed threaten the US hegemony

That's not remotely plausible. Russia doesn't have an economy to support a serious global currency. It has an economy the size of Canada. The US could have never positioned itself to have the global reserve currency, without having the world's largest economy (or otherwise massive economy). That position dates back to ~1890. You can't acquire a superpower economy on the back of currency magic, it can only be done through actual economic production (an area where Russia is severely lacking).

The largest driver for economy in US is wars and dollar export.

Russia is also capable of this I guess.

They'll just figure out oligarchical collectivism and it will be fine :)

Can you buy anything with Russian Roubles outside Russia and maybe former USSR member states? If you can't, the state propaganda is just that: mostly BS.

I'm currently reading books by Russian authors (Vladimir Sorokin, Andrei Kurkov) and there's constant talk about dollars and also roubles when the characters talk about money. It's like both are used to pay for stuff, dollars for black market goods, hitchhike rides, ransom etc. and roubles for regular stuff like alcohol, a taxi ride, a dinner at the Prague restaurant.

Fun fact: you actually can! Or at least used to be able to. About seven years ago I was on vacation in Turkey, somewhere close to Kemer. Besides the Lira, the Dollar, and the Euro, many vendors and cafés accepted Russian Roubles. The exchange rate they used was sometimes rather unfair, but they did accept them. Not sure if this is still the case there.

Probably Egypt as well as it's a popular Russian tourist destination.

> This includes the desire to make Russian Rouble one of the world's currencies.

This is simply bluster. Russia’s economy is about the size of Australia’s. Even the EU, with GDP comparable to the USA (and 10X Russia’s) hasn’t made any headway in the oil market, much less as a reserve currency.

Actually the value of being a reserve currency is mostly overstated. The US still has that status mainly due to the size and liquidity of its debt, and to a lesser extent, equity market. Even when a comparable rival does eventually emerge, hysteresis will keep the dollar on top for a long while. The same history applied to sterling when it was the world’s reserve currency.

It's not exactly new, or Putin.

It's roughly been Russian policy since the early 1800's and the Great Game/Bolshya Igra only then it was trying to undermine GB and Sterling, particularly over India. They seem to have been working the multi-polar angle since Tsarist days too. The internet obviously made things a little easier.

An awful lot that is blamed on Russian intervention sounds far too convenient.

"prevention of (implied US-American) hegemony"

The US openly describes itself as having and maintaining hegemony. With regard to state department representatives and public officials this would primarily be in spoken form. With regard to private media and academics you can find many references to US hegemony and how this relates to influence.

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