Despite growing pressure from Russia, Brazil is unlikely to substantively help Moscow create an alternative international payments system due to the South American country's economic reliance on the U.S. dollar. Russian officials have been pressuring Brazil to help bolster Russia's economic standing after its invasion of Ukraine ignited a litany of Western sanctions, including cutting off some Russian banks from the international payments mechanism Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT). This has only reinforced Russia's long-time strategic desire to de-dollarize the global financial system and create a new global payments system -- a process Moscow envisions occurring over the course of many years or even decades. Russia is likely attempting to gauge Brazil's willingness to assist in the development of such a new system for transitions between the two countries that could then theoretically be expanded to other countries such as China, India and South Africa (which form the...
