BRICS leaders and top diplomats take part in a photo session for the annual summit in Rio de Janeiro on July 6, 2025.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has expressed concern over the escalating US public debt crisis, asserting that the unchecked growth in debt, coupled with illegal sanctions, is eroding global confidence in the US dollar.
Speaking at an outreach session during the 17th BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday, Lavrov highlighted how the weaponization of the dollar as a tool for “punishment" has intensified global economic instability and disrupted the existing world order.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed countless disadvantages of the global trade and finance system and accelerated its fragmentation.
“The erosion of the global economic world order has exacerbated as a result of illegitimate unilateral sanctions and use of dollar as a means of ‘punishment’. The trust in the American currency as a formerly reliable payment instrument was undermined,” he added.
Lavrov also stated that the “rapidly growing debt burden” is another factor negatively affecting the dollar's stability.
“Since 2011, the number of highly indebted states rose from 22 to 59. Today developing countries are spending on debt service more than they invest into their development,” he warned
“The situation is going out of control even in developed states — the US has seen the record level of sovereign debt which reached 37 trillion dollars and it continues to grow,” he emphasized.
The BRICS group, composed of Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, and other developing countries, has expressed frustration with the US’s dominant role in the global financial system.
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced at the BRICS summit in October that the US itself was forcing some world nations to part ways with America by “weaponizing” the dollar currency as leverage in Washington’s foreign policy.
Putin added that by using the US dollar as a military tool to sabotage other countries’ economies to enforce its agenda in international affairs, the US leaders in Washington were making a “big mistake.”
“It’s not us who refuse to use the dollar,” he noted. “But if they don’t let us work, what can we do? We are forced to search for alternatives.”
Brazil is hosting the 17th BRICS summit. The agenda includes healthcare, trade, investment, finance, and climate change issues, as well as AI management, and the strengthening of peace and security.
