Scotland could not keep the pound if it became independent from the UK, billionaire investor George Soros has said.
Dubbed "the man who broke Britain" after profiting by selling sterling on Black Wednesday, the Hungarian-born investor said it would not be "actually practical" for Scotland to keep its currency if Alex Salmond's campaign for independence was to succeed.
Mr Soros, speaking at the European Council on Foreign Relations in London, said: "Scotland wants to remain a part of the (pound) sterling and Britain is creating obstructions to that.
"It would be a very difficult relationship and I don't think that Scotland becoming independent and yet remaining part of the sterling is actually possible."
The UK Government has previously ruled out a currency union with Scotland if it were to win independence from the UK in the forthcoming referendum.
Chancellor George Osborne, Chief Secretary Danny Alexander and shadow chancellor Ed Balls united in saying they would not support Scotland keeping the pound were the Scottish majority to vote "yes" in September.
Speaking at the launch of his new book, The Tragedy Of The European Union: Disintegration or Revival, the now-retired Mr Soros said: "The alternative would be for Scotland to seek membership of the European Central Bank and then it would be part of the eurozone.
"I think an independent currency would be very inefficient and potentially dangerous."
Mr Soros also described the crisis in the Ukraine as a "wake-up call" to Europe - and called on the union to concentrate on doing what was best for the EU as a whole, rather than focusing on the needs of individual member states.
He said: "Ukrainians have effectively proven they are willing to sacrifice their lives to be closer to a Europe that is at the same time in the process of disintegration.
"Europe now faces this issue. Are they going to respond to the invasion of Crimea based on their narrow national interests or are they going to act on a united basis representing the interests of the whole European Union?
"It is a challenge and I hope that Europe will respond to it and actually rediscover its original mission."
He also claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin "outmanoeuvred Europe with no difficulty" in offering support to the Ukrainian people.
"I think Europe was totally unprepared for this crisis," he said. "Europe - as usual, true to form - and the German leadership demanded a lot and offered very little to the Ukraine.
"It was not difficult for Putin to come up with a better offer. Where Putin miscalculated was with the response to the Ukrainian public.
"He has a blind spot, it is beyond his comprehension and his expectations that a nation could actually have a spontaneous reaction.
"He believes somebody must have manipulated them. He believes the public can be manipulated therefore it is.
"This was an event where the public did react spontaneously and unanimously. It was a decisive moment for Ukraine because it established its identity as a country which wants to belong to Europe."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article