Moves in Russian Gold – Watch What Happens

Now normally these things are about our Own views on gold but this one this is About our views on other people's views Which sounds a little bit like gossiping But I don't think that we're doing that Here if one of you has coffee cake Though I'll sure call the rest of the Gals [Music] I always think it's interesting to learn How other people view gold both Generally and specifically but in this Specific case here I'm talking about People in other countries and if you had To pick a country well Russia would be At the top of the interesting chart but Before anyone gets too excited here I Don't mean that in a positive way I Don't approve of their invasion of Ukraine but nobody asked me now I'm Purely looking at this from the sense of The country's currency ups and downs and What that means to the citizens there And then what that means to the Government itself the sanctions and the Tactics that they're using to get around Them and then simply how prevalent gold Has been in the news relating both to The government actions and to the Actions of the citizens that's what I'm Looking at now when we're looking at What's happening in Russia from outside Well there's only so much reliable Information we can find on the topic and

Even if we were there on the ground I Think we'd find the same thing there Just as anywhere the first rule of gold Ownership is that you don't talk about Gold ownership but we do have official Statements from representatives from Their Central Bank and from other Government agencies and we also have Private gold sales statistics both from Banks and depositories so at a minimum We at least know enough to get a sense Of the government's current stance and Then we know enough to get the idea of The buying behavior of the general Population so let's start with the Government there was a lot of talk about How Russia was creating a gold standard In March of this year because the Central bank had authorized purchases From domestic producers for a set price In Rubles and that addressed two things Really the inventory from Russian Producers who can no longer sell their Gold to Western Nations and also it Helped address the rapid decline of the Ruble by creating an inverse Peg to gold Hypothetically that idea did not last Long though the initial announcement for The fixed price was set to begin March 28th but those purchases were Discontinued April 8th so not even two Weeks later now one story is that the Central Bank stops due to retail demand From the population but the ruble had

Also stabilized at that point it's Really hard to say why they quit but That idea of a gold standard in Russia Well that disappeared pretty fast gold Has popped back up as a supporting actor And a few stories of commodity exchanges I guess both as a form of payment for Natural gas at that set price and then As a possible component of a basket Currency now more recently gold hit the News in an announcement that Russia was Proposing an international precious Metals exchange called the Moscow World Standard and that would be a competitor To the lbma the very organization that Banned Russia's gold refineries from Good delivery essential actually cut Them out of the market and what that Could mean to you or really anyone Sitting on a gold position is that there Would be a new competitor helping to set The price for gold that had no Motivation to suppress those prices well Last week Russia's gold plans were in The news again with Russia's Central Bank Deputy Governor stating that Increasing the country's official Reserves is counterproductive this came Up in response to whether the central Bank would help support domestic gold Miners with their unsold medals now if You remember that's really what kicked Off The Big stories for gold and Russia To begin with since it was the central

Bank's policy to resume buying domestic Producers gold that led to those Suggestions that they were moving toward A gold standard well like I just Mentioned that particular story has been Shelled well this moves it up a shelver To higher because they are no longer Stockpiling not at a static price or Otherwise at least as far as we know None of this means that gold is not an Import important part of Russia's Financial strategy it simply means that Some of those interpretations of what They were up to and the immediacy of Gold's part in it all well that's all Changed so if we were to shift gears and Jump to the general population we can See statistics that show that it's Really in the news there as well if we Look at the retail purchase of physical Metals it has grown substantially in Russia and according to Kitco Russia's Largest slender sperbach and you can hit Me up in the comments if you don't like My pronunciation well they have opened 300 000 new accounts year to date and That amounts to about seven tons of gold Teal nnes for those of you who care 89 Tons of silver and about a ton each of Platinum and Palladium and that was About 550 million dollars of unallocated Gold purchased through that one bank This year now I can't let this part go Buying unallocated Metals it's not my

Preference by the way that means the Metals don't even have to be on hand but Aside from that local banks are also Reporting a surge in demand for gold and Then what's a surge I think that's hard To say but Russia's Central Bank made Two concessions to make it easier for Citizens to get a hold of gold this year First they had to temporarily halt their Purchase to allow inventory for retail Purchases I mentioned that a minute ago It's kind of a convenient answer to what They might have actually been doing but Who am I to say and then second they got Rid of the 20 vat that's the value-added Tax and that makes buying Metals a lot Easier so this works to the government's Favor since it encourages precious Metals purchases over foreign currency Purchases like the US dollar and the Euro and you might remember that was the Entire goal of Zimbabwe's gold coin Program the story there is that they Rolled out a new program to make gold Coins locally that would help give Another option for citizens to buy gold As a hedge against local currency chaos The Hope being of course that citizens Would lay off the US dollars So even though the information that we Have coming out of Russia is anecdotal And not always reliable it looks like The attention that they are giving to Gold is not only significant it has been

Increasing over the last few years now Some have been suggesting that both Russia and China have been stockpiling Gold far beyond the reported Holdings in Prep for a new digital currency that Would be at least partially gold backed Now there is not any actual evidence of This but it's a very common theme and if Nothing else the amount of actual news About Russia and its policies involving Gold has been very significant well Maybe more interesting than what's going On with gold in Russia is why we seem to Care so much here in the United States And I think that it's pretty easy Because the moral of most of these Stories about goals possible involvement Is a currency maybe it being a key to a New monetary exchange or simply the Additional stock buying of the metal by Other nations well In any case the value in the price of Gold would potentially go up and if that Happened it would be significant to Anyone holding gold so I think maybe we Take a look at a few possible Beneficiaries beginning with the United States Now if you were to look at reported Holdings the U.S has twice the gold Reserves of Russia and China combined Now I haven't heard anybody use the stat In that way so I double checked it and It is hard to say if those reported

Holdings represent the actual amounts But I think it's important to at least Have the information if we're Considering the likelihood of a gold Back currency or really any kind of Lever that would increase the value and Utility of gold because as it stands the U.S still has more than any other Nation Really and there are a number of Western Nations that also have very significant Holdings of gold and since we looked at Anecdotal data from Russian retail gold Sales that's actually people on the Street buying gold here is a look at the 2022 gold sales as reported by the U.S Mint and we can see that there has been A very large increase in gold sales this Year over last and we're not even Showing the full year in 2022 we're Using year-to-date data that goes up Through October 20th but the sales Figures still significantly outperformed 2021 and 2020 for that matter if you Were curious U.S Mint gold sales for 2020 were slightly higher than they were Last year but still nowhere near what They are so far in 2022 So this looks to be a much more wide Scale Trend than something that's only Happening in Russia and I think that the Reason that Russia's moves in gold is so Interesting at least to me is based on Our own government's General disinterest We have no vat here in the United States

It's very easy to buy here and there's a Relatively high amount to private Interest but again not much on the topic At the government level even though the United States has more reported gold Reserves than any other country by a Wide margin I think it simply makes it More interesting when any government Introduces policy related to the metal And as for Russia specifically their Gold represents a significant financial Resource that is currently being Actively blocked by multiple countries So when they do find a way to move their Gold again it will be as a significant Producer making up for lost time and Some of those moves could be large Enough to impact gold prices worldwide At least that's where the general Interest comes from and I guess on the Flip side of that it could continue to Really not go anywhere at all I guess We'll see so let us know what you think Are you expecting that partially Gold-backed currency coming from brics Nations or a new Metals exchange to Compete with the lbma let us know either Way we're seeing much higher sales in U.S Mint gold this year and I wonder a Little bit if everyone was already aware It surprised me a little bit since it Feels like a slow year so hit us up in The comments with your take and while You're there be sure to hit the like

Button if you found any of this Interesting be sure you're subscribed With notifications turned on if you'd Like to see more on the topic and if You're still here thanks again for Watching I always appreciate your time Take care [Music]