Moscow, Jul 12 (IANS/RIA Novosti): Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin Monday accused the US of hooliganism over the American government's efforts to ease its financial problems by reportedly injecting billions of dollars into the economy.

"Thank God, or unfortunately, we do not print a reserve currency but what are they doing? They are behaving like hooligans, switching on the printing press and tossing them around the whole world, forgetting their main obligations," Putin said at a meeting of economic experts at the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Putin's comments came in the wake of the US quantitative easing programme in June, when the Federal Reserve bought $600 billion worth of its Treasury bonds.

Quantitative easing is an unconventional monetary policy tool used by some central banks to stimulate the national economy when conventional monetary policy becomes ineffective. A central bank implements quantitative easing by purchasing financial assets from banks and other private sector businesses with new money that it creates electronically.