The U.S. issues trillions in debt. Russia quietly accumulates gold and may make it the basis for their currency. From alasdairmacleod.substack.com:
It is a year since Sergei Glazyev, Commissioner for Integration and Macroeconomics within the Eurasian Economic Commission, disclosed his views on gold and its value in trade. Undoubtedly, his opinion carries weight not only with President Putin to whom he is very close, but he also influenced Russian proposals for a new trade settlement currency for BRICS which failed to make the Johannesburg agenda last August.
Published in Vedomosti, the Moscow business paper on 27 December 2022, it is very relevant a year later given Russia’s presidency of BRICS which commenced on 1 January. There follows an English translation of his article in its entirety.
Golden rouble 3
A severe sanctions blockade created the necessary prerequisites for the reversal of Russian foreign trade by 180 degrees. The main foreign economic partners were the countries – members of the EAEU, China, India, Iran, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, etc. And with each of these countries, the Russian Federation has a surplus in the trade balance. According to a preliminary assessment by the Bank of Russia, in January – September 2022 it strengthened to $ 198.4 billion, which is $ 123.1 billion more compared to the same period last year. This surplus was taken out of the country (while half went to pay off the external debts of Russian companies with their replacement with internal rouble lending) and is reflected in the balance of payments line item “net capital exports”.
In friendly countries, there is a process of de-dollarization, and the share of settlements in soft currencies is growing. In September, Russia became the third country in the world in terms of the use of the renminbi in international settlements. According to the Central Bank, in recent months, the trade in the renminbi accounts for up to 26% of foreign exchange transactions in the Russian Federation. The yuan/roubles pair on the Moscow Exchange has repeatedly overtaken the dollar and euros in terms of daily trading. When used in foreign trade calculations of the Russian Federation, renminbi, rial, etc. and the presence of a trade surplus, the result is the accumulation of multibillion dollar cash balance equivalents on the accounts of Russian exporters in soft currencies in banks of the above partner countries.
