World Economy & Sanction Tools: Putin Says US Undermining Position as Global Reserve Currency

The Russian president earlier spoke to reporters and relayed that his government is by no means using energy as a weapon against Europe amid the growing crisis, underscoring that Russia solely stands ready to help the region ahead of the looming winter months.

Offering more color on his earlier remarks, Russian President Vladimir Putin commented late Wednesday that the US is effectively undermining its position as the world's reserve currency by using the US dollar as a sanctions tool.

The remarks were made during an exclusive interview with CNBC's Headley Gamble at the end of the plenary session of the Russian Energy Week forum. The discussion touched on a variety of topics, including Putin's presidential term, military blocs and cryptocurrency, among other subjects.

Asked whether the US dollar is moving away from being the world's reserve currency, the Russian president commented that the US is actually "undermining its position" as Washington continues to use the dollar as an instrument of sanctions abroad.

"It is undermining its position as the world's reserve currency," Putin told Gamble. "The volume of settlements in dollars is shrinking, and the volume of personal reserves of the world's countries in dollars is also reducing."

"But we are not interested in completely stopping payments in dollars, and so far we are satisfied with, say, payments for energy resources in dollars, primarily for oil. But if the policy of the American authorities continues, as I have already mentioned, then we will not have to do anything, the United States will itself undermine confidence in the dollar," he noted.

Putin added that the United States, when using the US dollar as a sanctions tool, is making "a very big mistake" that will slowly but surely force entities to move away from the dollar.