MOSCOW, November 27. /TASS/. The United States is using the dollar as a weapon and launching trade wars, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at the Primakov Readings international forum.

"The US and its European allies are using a wide set of tools to engage in geopolitical engineering [to serve their purposes]. Among them are actions aimed at provoking conflicts - we see this along the entire perimeter of Russia’s borders - and conducting information and psychological operations, and launching trade and economic wars," the top Russian diplomat said. "The activity of the World Trade Organization, primarily its dispute resolution arm, has been blocked by the hands of the Westerners. Such fundamental legal principles of global economic relations as free competition and the inviolability of property rights have been subverted," he continued. "The dollar has been used as a weapon for a long time already; economic interdependence is now being weaponized," the top diplomat stressed.

"The destructive actions of the Western minority have had an effect that is, broadly speaking, contrary to what they had intended, because they stimulate a configuration that favors the strengthening of multipolar fundamentals in international life," Lavrov noted. "The understanding is growing that nobody is insured against the aggressive actions of Washington and Brussels. Not only we [in Russia] but many other countries are also consistently working toward reducing dependence on Western currencies, moving to alternative mechanisms for executing international trade settlements, working on developing new international transport corridors and manufacturing and sales supply chains," he said.

The Primakov Readings international forum is being held in Moscow on November 27-28. TASS is the event’s general information partner.