So while many news outlets, including yours truly, made fun of Nazarbayev’s plan for a world currency, a Nobel-prize winner Professor Robert Mundell thinks it’s quite plausible. He was the architect of the euro and believes the idea could be expanded. I continue to seriously doubt it, Nobel prize or not.
I see Nazarbayev’s remarks as intended for domestic consumption. Blaming the dollar and the West for the economic crisis, and anything else, is standard fare. Nazarbayev is looking to deflect blame. Russia, on the other hand, thinks acmetal is a bad idea as it promotes its own plans for regional use of the rouble. I also doubt the plausibility of that as the rouble is too ostensible a sign of Russian domination.