The strategy of Russian President Vladimir Putin to constantly increase the country’s gold reserves proved to be the most correct against the background of the coronavirus pandemic and the economic crisis. This was stated by the Executive editor of the economic Department of one of the leading German Newspapers Die Welt Holger Zschepitz, reports Deutsche Welle.
He admitted that his article last year, “Vladimir Putin’s Fatal thirst for gold”, which referred to the trap of gold reserves for Russia, was wrong. A record increase in the price of gold to a level above two thousand dollars per ounce forced the observer to change his opinion.
“Putin wanted to reduce the dependence of Russian reserves on the us dollar and with the help of gold masterfully coped with this geopolitical task,” said Zschepitz. According to him, the Russian President is acting quite smart in this area, but the country’s economy is still stalling, and the population continues to live poorly.
As of August 13, Russia’s international reserves have grown to $ 600 billion, which is higher than the historical record of 2008. The expert praised Moscow for such actions, noting that the purchase of gold continued even when oil and gas prices were at the lowest level for many years.
However, German publicist and publisher Wolfram Weimer suggested that increasing reserves was not Putin’s goal — first of all, he sought to reduce the use of the dollar. In his column on the portal of the n-tv channel, Weimer called Putin “the man of the week” for his gold and currency policy.
Meanwhile Chepic believes that even record high prices will not make the leadership of Russia to sell gold and invest the money into the economy. First of all, it is important for Putin to increase the country’s weight in the international arena, and the fact that the sale of such volumes of gold may face difficulties does not bother him.
Earlier, the Russian accounting chamber estimated that the country’s domestic borrowing in 2020 could reach 4.1 trillion rubles — a record for the past 15 years. Such funds are needed to Finance the budget deficit, other options are not provided. However, in July and August, the Ministry of Finance is experiencing problems with the placement of state papers. Due to the lack of buyers, the last auction had to be canceled altogether.