IMF-obedient Bank of Russia rejects gold-backed ruble
Nabiullina says the idea is not even being discussed. After all, it's against IMF rules
The long-awaited golden ruble has returned to the front page of Zerohedge and everyone is very excited. Except for the Bank of Russia, which announced yesterday that pegging the ruble to gold is not even being considered as a possibility.
Let’s rewind to April 26. In an interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta, Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev said the Russian government was toying with the idea of backing the ruble “both with gold and a group of goods.”
Very cool. Very based. High-five.
But then the most predictable thing in whole world happened: Russia’s central bank dominatrix, Elvira Nabiullina, ruined everything. Again.
“As for tying the ruble to gold, this is not discussed in any way,” Nabiullina said during a press briefing on Friday.
Just a reminder: Nabiullina was recently reappointed as head of the Bank of Russia after receiving Putin’s endorsement. (She allegedly tried to resign after Washington & Company vacuumed up half of Russia’s foreign exchange reserves. Anyway, she’s still with us and everyone is very glad about this, including Mike Whitney, who lovingly refers to her as a “financial terrorist.”)
Why is Elvira so allergic to the idea of tying Russia’s currency to gold? There are probably several reasons.
One reason is that pegging your currency to gold is strictly verboten if you are a member of the prestigious International Monetary Fund. It’s a massive no-no.
Russia is a proud member of the IMF. If Moscow wants to create a system where you can exchange a golden ruble for a VIP tour of Petro Poroshenko’s demonic chocolate factory, it will first need to withdraw from this esteemed international organization. At least that’s how we understand things.
Maybe there is a work-around. Maybe Russia can create two rubles: a gold-backed ruble for domestic use, and a less-cool ruble for foreign transactions. And maybe the IMF would be okay with that? Maybe. But Nabiullina doesn’t want to talk about it. She has long-tabled our beloved golden ruble. Simply unacceptable.
Don’t worry, friends: Nabiullina has a compromise. Instead of a gold-backed ruble, how about… a Central Bank Digital Currency that can be used to control and monitor all transactions, forever?
The Bank of Russia does not intend to postpone the introduction of the digital ruble, despite the technical unpreparedness of some banks, said Olga Skorobogatova, First Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank, during a meeting of the State Duma working group.
"From January 2022, we began testing the digital ruble in a test mode with banks, there are twelve of them, which declared themselves in the pilot group. I must say that not all banks were technically ready to join this testing, and we we divided them into several groups so that they could make improvements on their side.But at the same time, we do not want to change the deadlines, we do not want to lengthen any stages, because we believe that the digital ruble is very necessary for the economy, citizens and businesses. We are going according to our plan,” Skorobogatova said.
The digital ruble will be used in the implementation of government programs, this will allow more efficient tracking of the use of funds, said Central Bank Chairman Elvira Nabiullina in the State Duma.
“Indeed, the digital ruble will provide new opportunities. In addition to being convenient, it also provides opportunities for programming, tracking the targeted nature of the use of digital rubles. We are discussing with the government that such a ‘target ruble’ will be used for government state programs, and then the government will more effectively monitor the targeted use of the funds allocated to support certain sectors of the economy, for social support,” Nabiullina said.
This is the final nail in the Great Reset’s coffin. Schwab is sweating bullets.
A final thought before we end this blog post.
At the end of March, the central bank said it would purchase gold at a fixed price of 5,000 rubles a gram until June 30.
Everyone went bananas. All of the 5D Russia Pundits announced Moscow had masterfully and decisively pegged the ruble to gold. There was much rejoicing. Twitter imploded.
But wait… if Russia tied its currency to gold back in late March, why did Nabiullina declare a month later that the Bank of Russia will not even consider pegging the ruble to any kind of shiny metal? ………………………………………………
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Do you see the problem here?
“Gold-backed ruble could be a game-changer,” RT proclaimed on April 2.
Less than a week later, the Bank of Russia dropped its policy of buying gold at a fixed price, choosing instead to negotiate rates with sellers.
Even during this 10-day period, the ruble was never “pegged” to gold. Sorry?
Maybe one day Russia really will adopt a gold-backed ruble. But probably not while Nabiullina is playing tonsil hockey with the IMF. That’s the official Edward Slavsquat Forecast.
In the meantime… do you like trackable digital tokens, or inflation? We’ve got lots of that. Here, have some inflation, very yummy:
Just a friendly reminder: Elvira Nabiullina took part in this 2017 WEF document on the challenges of cyber attacks, in which they wrote about the "systemic risks", considering cyber attacks "the single most important risk to the current financial services system" and, of course, advocated for a "public private cooperation to prevent cyber-attacks". She was part of the Steering Committee and a steward of "the System Initiative on Shaping the Future of Financial and Monetary Systems": https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Cyber_Risk_to_Customer_Data.pdf
Many pundits inverted Russia's bid for Gold at 5000 rubles/gram as supporting the ruble with gold. But obviously if the ruble falls and makes it a bad deal for gold sellers, then no trades occur..so where is the support? An offer to buy gold at a fixed price was putting a floor on gold, in rubles. It does nothing to support the rubble. In reality this offer was always just providing an alternate means for Europe to pay for oil/gas.
1944 Bretton woods, with the cooperation of all the large economies in the world, the US being the biggest by far, the US having he largest military and international organizations to support it (IMF, world bank) failed in just 27 years.
A fixed gold backing, to function, requires the central bank to be willing to buy gold with their currency when the relative gold price is too low, and sell gold for their currency when the relative gold price is too high. If world gold demand increases more than the demand for your currency it requires servicing that demand with your gold reserves, or letting the peg break. How long could a gold peg last given that Russia is a smaller economy and larger hostile economies would weaponize the peg to drain their gold reserves? To enact a gold peg would be foolish.
They are best off free floating their currency, requiring payment in rubles for gas exports, holding their gold as a wealth reserve, and waiting for the LBMA to fail and physical price discovery to correctly value their reserves.