On October 23rd, with the opening of the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, the issue of cryptocurrencies is on the agenda. Russian lawmakers are pushing the idea that Russian miners could sell their tokens to international buyers, and domestic buyers could use bitcoin markets and other crypto marketplaces to pay for imported goods, effectively bypassing Western sanctions. Commenting on the situation, Richard Wolf, an American economist and professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, says the BRICS alliance is surpassing the United States, which has peaked. The United States is in decline and trying to maintain its international dominance.