Photo by wikipedia.org
And all the gold in the world
Recently, a number of media outlets calmly informed the public that from January to October 2021, more than 240 tons of gold were exported from Russia. Despite the fact that this is 8% less than a year ago, the volumes exceed the level of production in Russia of the first of the precious metals.
Recall that according to the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation, during the same period, the production of mined gold in the country amounted to only 218,79 tons. In this case, the so-called passing method was mined 12,55 tons, and in secondary production - 25,2 tons of gold.
Voennoye Obozreniye has more than once expressed positive assessments regarding the preservation of a significant part of the country's reserves in gold (The golden burden of Russia).
What has changed in the policy of our monetary authorities and why did the intervention of the highest representatives of the Federal Assembly take to sort this out? The State Duma, as follows from the speech of its chairman Vyacheslav Volodin (pictured), is waiting for an answer from the Bank of Russia why the export of gold from the country is growing.
Photo: duma.gov.ru
Apparently, the Duma members were not embarrassed by the volumes of export, or rather, the sale of precious metal, but the time chosen for such operations, as well as the addressees themselves. At the present time, one cannot but be embarrassed that in October 2021 alone, 30,3 tons of gold, which cost about 1,27 billion pounds (1,7 billion dollars), did not go anywhere, but to the UK.
By itself, the exchange of a real asset for reversible, albeit convertible billions, if also at a good price, is perhaps even a good thing if there really was an acute shortage of currency in the country. For which we just needed to acquire something, and not necessarily here and now.
But after all, most likely, we are talking about the next round of replenishment of the notorious money-boxes, which have started and are tightly controlled by the Central Bank and the Ministry of Finance. But the fact that Russia with reserves, even now, in the midst of a pandemic, everything is quite good, is not a secret even for schoolchildren.
Gold standard
If we have something bad with reserves, it is that they, again, are mostly converted into dollars, euros and the same pounds sterling. That is, now not in colorful pieces of paper with presidents, bridges, kings and queens, but in simple electronic files.
«Take everything, I'll draw myself some more"- remember this legendary phrase of the movie hero from the once almost cult" Wedding in Malinovka "? Once again, the damned bigwigs in the West are treating Russia like a banana republic. And we are happy, humiliating our own people up to the iconic confessions from the highest tribune.
It was from there that it sounded on December 23 that ours, dear readers, real incomes grew by only 3,5 percent with 8 percent inflation. "Can't you catch up with us?"- sorry for another quote, not from a movie, but from a song. In the poverty of the population of such a rich country - that's for sure.
Why don't we keep the gold for ourselves? Only to demonstrate to opponents, who are ready to turn not into competitors, but into direct enemies, their damn loyalty. Show that we are active in the markets and are still ready for dialogue.
In the years after the first default, Russia has achieved in terms of money such that the same West never dreamed of. We settled with the IMF and the World Bank, having become fully involved in the WTO and GATT, where the system can only be called a dictatorship. And we also avoided default a couple of times.
Now we easily get a surplus budget, although mainly at the expense of the common people, and accumulate record reserves. For a rainy day? Well, hasn't he arrived yet? In the event of a real exacerbation, no reserves, and even more so - denominated in dollars, euros and pounds, will certainly not help.
Or is everything just done by our business and the ruling elite, in order to bite off their own percentage, and if something happens to shift the blame onto those to whom they sold themselves?
Not all that is gold
It would seem that in modern times we have completely forgotten that the ruble was once backed by gold, and the reserves of the first of the metals were traditionally the envy of enemies. Even pre-revolutionary Russia mined as much gold as the countries that were economically ahead of it could not mine, mind you - all together.
Then there was the legendary "Golden Echelon" and the loss of the gold reserve. In the end, the subsequent accusations of the Bolsheviks in the sale or simply theft of almost "all the gold in Russia" began to be taken for granted.
The protocol order to the Central Bank of the Russian Federation is not a joke at all. After such a short wait, the chair under the chairman of the Board of Directors will swing. And many years of carte blanche from the head of state may not even help. The Iron Lady of the Central Bank is unlikely to be allowed to remain silent.
It is not yet clear to what extent the information held by the Duma members is substantiated. Nevertheless, the very fact that the order to find out what assessment deserves such a large-scale export of gold from the country was made not by someone else, and not even by the main Duma faction, but personally by the Chairman of the State Duma, means a lot.
Needless to say, of what is not renewed, gold is the most reliable security for your own money. Natural wealth and human potential, or a resource, that's whoever you like, of course, it's better, but you still have to work with both.
And gold - that's it, and it shouldn't go anywhere so easily. Is there any law on this? Yes, they are just a dime a dozen. So maybe the Duma members should take up some kind of "golden code", where not only about gold, but about all our other riches to write everything down?