Russian President Vladimir Putin has unveiled his ingenious plan for securing Russia’s financial sovereignty.
“It is necessary to strengthen the financial sovereignty of the country, I count on the work of the Central Bank,” Putin said during a meeting with government officials on Wednesday.
Obviously, it is perfectly understandable for Putin to have great expectations for his country’s wonderful central bank.
Let’s review why.
Like all central banks, the Bank of Russia functions as a “body of state power” even though it acts independently from the Russian state.
Like all central banks, the Bank of Russia engages in all kinds of “sovereignty-protecting” measures, such as “monitoring all transactions in the country, unless you are rich and can afford to take advantage of legal loopholes”:
Like all central banks, the Bank of Russia is aggressively pushing for its own CBDC, the digital ruble.
“Real operations” with Russia’s centralized, programmable digital currency have been fast-tracked and are slated to begin in April. Everyone is very excited about this:
The digital ruble will also ensure the transparency of the terms of payment services, since it will allow tracking the targeted spending of funds by citizens, representatives of Promsvyazbank, Sberbank and Russian Standard Bank note. […]
Blockchain consultant and cryptocurrency researcher Denis Smirnov is critical of the idea of the Central Bank: “For people, the introduction of the digital ruble is the realization of the most terrible scenarios described by science fiction writers in dystopias.” According to the expert, with the advent of the digital ruble, absolute transparency will reign in the field of personal finance, which means that the human right to privacy will be under attack.
What a whiner. Doesn’t this guy care about “financial sovereignty”?
Like all central banks, the Bank of Russia is obsessed with cattle-tagging the proles.
Thanks to Russia’s Unified Biometric System, the Bank of Russia enjoys a 25% stake in a commercial enterprise that will store all biometric data in the country (for now, face scans and voice recordings).
Conservative activists in Russia have warned that this newly created database lays the foundation for a digital control grid.
Like all central banks, the Bank of Russia is completely awful.
Elvira Nabiullina received another term as CBR chief (after being endorsed by Putin) weeks after “losing” half of the Bank of Russia’s reserves to western asset-freezes.
To some it may seem odd that Russia’s president places so much faith in Elvira and her sovereignty-guarding bank, but all seasoned Russia-watchers know Putin is extremely fond of central banks.
Speaking at the Davos Agenda 2021 online forum on January 27, Russia’s president prophesized that central banks would take a lead role in developing a “sustainable” solution to the economic aftermath of the “pandemic”:
[We must] ensure that this [economic] recovery is sustainable in the long run, relies on a high-quality structure and helps overcome the burden of social imbalances. Clearly, with the above restrictions and macroeconomic policy in mind, economic growth will largely rely on fiscal incentives with state budgets and central banks playing the key role.
We, definitely not the Controlled Opposition party, would like to offer you freedom from evil western imperialist central digital currency by offering our, uh... freedom central digital currency with a freedom sticker label slapped on it.
That giant database tracking tool over there with financial payment blocks? That's to, uhh... enhance freedom.
Thank you for highlighting the fearless and selfless efforts of well-intended political leadership of my homeland for the benefit of well-being and security of all workers and peasants!! Good job, Riley (and a "vympel").