Kremlin: Putin is considering a return to the gold standard

Russian President Vladimir Putin is discussing with officials the idea of ​​linking the value of the ruble to gold and other goods, the Kremlin said on Friday, according to Reuters.

A senior Russian security official said this week that linking the ruble to gold could give Russia more “control” over its financial system, which has been hit by Western sanctions since Moscow sent troops to Ukraine. February 24.

Asked about the idea in a teleconference with reporters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peshkov said “this issue is being discussed with Putin”.

Russia produces about 10% of the world’s gold every year and is a major producer of oil, gas, metals and grain.

It is recalled that Russia’s central bank said in March that it would buy gold at a fixed price of 5,000 rubles a gram until June 30. But two weeks later, after the ruble had risen sharply, he withdrew and said he would buy at bargain prices.

Many currencies had previously been associated with gold or silver, but this connection was severed when the United States in 1971 stopped allowing dollars to be converted into gold.

Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of Russia’s Security Council and a close ally of Putin, said on Tuesday that proposals were being made to link the ruble’s value to gold and other goods.

“The most important condition for ensuring Russia’s financial security is its dependence on the country’s internal dynamics,” he said in an interview with the government newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

Asked if these ideas were in line with economic theory, Patrushev said that “they do not contradict the conclusions of economics, they contradict the conclusions of Western economic textbooks.”