Igor Sechin: the world enters strategic risks zone - fictitious capital five times exceeds global GDP

The global economy has entered a zone of strategic risks, stated Igor Sechin, Executive Secretary of the Commission under the President of the Russian Federation for Strategic Development of the Fuel and Energy Sector and Environmental Security, at the Energy Panel during the XXIX St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

"The global economy has entered a zone not just of volatility, but of strategic risks. Problems are snowballing," he said during his presentation of the keynote report "The Beginning of the End or the End of the Beginning: What’s left at the Bottom of Pandora's Box?".

Sechin recalled how the abandonment of the fundamental principles of the Bretton Woods system, related to the gold standard, led to massive unbacked money emission. "Since 2008, the global money supply has increased by more than 30 trillion dollars, of which almost half fell on the US and the Eurozone," he noted.

In his opinion, the result of such a policy was a massive outflow of capital from the real sector to the virtual one, which led to a hypertrophied growth in the mass of fictitious capital. "Today, its volume exceeds 500 trillion dollars – this is almost five times more than global GDP. Over the past 20 years, this ratio has grown by one and a half times," said Igor Sechin.

He drew attention to the fact that this phenomenon did not bypass the Russian financial system either. In Russia, this indicator is already approaching 100% of GDP. "Even Aristotle considered the most unnatural form of enrichment to be the one where money produces money. The entire modern financial system is built on this," emphasized Igor Sechin.

He cited data from the Institute of International Finance, according to which the volume of global debt has effectively doubled over the past 15 years.

According to the estimate of the International Monetary Fund, by the end of the current year, the total national debt of Japan will reach almost 205% of GDP, the USA – almost 130%, France – 120%, and the UK – 105%.

Even economist John Maynard Keynes, in his work "The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money," warned of the danger of productive investments turning into speculative bubbles. In his opinion, when the development of productive capital in a country becomes a by-product of the activities of a financial market casino, it is unlikely to be carried out successfully. "The monetarist concept adopted today says that money has its own value, rather than being exclusively an instrument of settlement — a means of payment. It is this concept that forms the bubble in the financial market," observed Igor Sechin.

In his opinion, the debt of most countries today is not backed by real financial assets. Even the physical gold located in US vaults (which is more than 14 thousand tons) covers only five percent of the 39 trillion dollars of American debt. At the same time, a significant part of the gold stored in America does not belong to it – more than 40% of these reserves were transferred from other countries for safekeeping," said Sechin.

He placed emphasis on a similarly developing situation with the debts of US allied countries. The gold reserve of France covers only 9% of the national debt of this country, Japan's – 1.5%, and the UK's – just over 1%.

Summing up, Igor Sechin quoted the British historian and sociologist, a critic of Eurocentrism, Arnold Toynbee: "Civilizations are not killed, they commit suicide themselves." In other words, key risks are formed within the system itself, he summarized.

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June 6, 2026