Washington in tandem with London conned EU members “like a couple of shell-game tricksters” by drawing them into the economic war against Moscow, former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev claimed, commenting on the weakening of the euro.

On Tuesday, for the first time in 20 years, the US dollar and euro exchange rates reached parity on the Moscow Exchange. This turn of events, according to Medvedev, who now serves as deputy chair of the Russian Security Council, means that “predictions about the onset of a systemic crisis in the eurozone are beginning to come true.” In his opinion, the fall of the euro demonstrates “who pays in hard currency for the bloody crisis” in Ukraine.

“Washington in tandem with London conned the Europeans like a couple of shell-game tricksters,” the former president wrote on Telegram.

Prior to imposing “crazy restrictions” against Russia, European countries should have calculated “their own monetary and economic problems,” Medvedev claimed, adding that the White House normally weighs its risks much better.

“But the ‘useful European idiots’ suffered much more at the mercy of the Americans,” the deputy chair of the Security Council stressed.

However, Medvedev does not feel sorry for them since, in his opinion, “the Russophobes from the EU” unleashed “a hybrid war” against Russia and opened “a wide economic front” against it.

The former head of the state said that the transition to new trade payment methods, including the use of national currencies – the Russian ruble, Chinese yuan, Indian rupee and others – would be the best protection against “a rotting euro.”  He didn’t rule out the possibility that, in the future, the BRICS countries might come up with a new reserve currency.

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“The modern world clearly needs more than the dollar, euro, and pound sterling. For now, $1 = €1. Keep savings in rubles!” Medvedev wrote.

Commenting in mid-June on the economic sanctions against Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin called them “insane and thoughtless.”

Previously, he alleged that European leaders were committing economic “suicide” under pressure from the US.

The EU, however, insists that its members were aware of the grave consequences of anti-Russia sanctions for their own economies.

“But this is the price to pay to protect democracies and international law, and we are taking the necessary steps to address these issues in full solidarity,” the bloc’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said earlier this month.