An end to the dollar's global hegemony? The Kremlin sees an opportunity.

For average Russians, a small personal hoard of US dollars has always represented a place of safety amid the wild ups-and-downs that continue to beset the country's national currency, the ruble.

So it triggered a touch of panic among them when the Russian government confirmed long-standing rumors that it is working on a plan to insulate the economy from escalating US sanctions through “de-dollarization.”

The Trump administration has increasingly worked to weaponize the US dollar, by using its hegemonic position as the world's “reserve currency” to punish any entity or country that attempts to defy proliferating unilateral US sanctions against Russia, Iran, and China. And the Kremlin is seizing what it