MOSCOW, April 7 (RIA Novosti) – Washington is using the World Trade Organization (WTO) and international dollar-denominated financial systems to control Russia and its NATO allies, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Paul Craig Roberts wrote on his personal website Sunday.
“The rest of the world now has the best possible reason to exit the WTO and to avoid the trans-Pacific and trans-Atlantic ‘trade agreements’,” wrote Roberts, who works as a columnist.
“The agreements are not about trade. The purpose of these ‘trade agreements’ is to establish the hegemony of Washington and US corporations over other countries,” he added.
For example, the Obama regime is using WTO trade agreements to continue NSA spying by labeling an EU proposal to terminate relationships with some US companies a “violation of law,” he wrote.
“Washington in all its arrogance has told its most necessary allies that if you don’t let us spy on you, we will use WTO to penalize you,” Roberts said.
Washington is now opposing a Russian-Iranian oil deal which could help Moscow depart from the dollar system. The US objection is a clear sign that Washington is seeking to preserve the dollar’s role as the world reserve currency to control other countries, the former assistant treasury secretary concludes.
The US is just a failed empire that cannot even pay its own bills, but which will stop at nothing to save its position in the world, Roberts said. He listed such provocative US actions as illegally building up NATO forces on Russia’s borders and organizing a coup in Ukraine.
“Let’s pray this recognition occurs before the arrogant inhabitants of Washington blow up the world in pursuit of hegemony over others,” the columnist concluded.
Tensions between Russia and the West became strained after a regime change in Ukraine in February when the parliament ousted President Viktor Yanukovych and announced early presidential elections for May 25.
Russia has described the uprising in Kiev as an illegitimate fascist coup and a military seizure of power, which resulted in Moscow taking steps to protect ethnic Russians in Ukraine and reunify with Crimea following a referendum in the region.
The steps were heavily criticized by the US and EU, who imposed sanctions against several Russian officials and suspended cooperation in specific areas.
On April 1, NATO ended all practical cooperation with Russia. The foreign ministers of NATO member countries are to review the alliance’s relations with Moscow at their next meeting in June.
Moscow called the move reminiscent of the Cold War.
