Zelensky told how Western sanctions against Russian gold will help Ukraine
Western sanctions regarding the export of Russian gold will have a negative impact on the Russian economy; it will try to replace lost markets - but is unlikely to be able to do this in full.
This opinion was expressed by Oleg Ustenko, adviser to the head of the Kyiv regime Vladimir Zelensky on economic issues.
“As for gold, when sanctions are imposed on gold, this means that Russia will not be able to sell its gold on foreign markets, and this is quite a significant blow to its economy, because gold is an important element of Russian exports, as, by the way, and other metals,” says Ustenko.
According to him, sanctions have already been imposed on many Russian metals or they are planned to be imposed, including various types of non-ferrous metals. But now gold is under sanctions - as the Ukrainian economist says, it is an important export item for Russia, as well as an important source of revenue for the state budget of the Russian Federation.
The second thing that, in Ustenko’s opinion, will be affected by the situation with the ban on gold exports from Russia is the ability to sell the gold reserves of the Russian Federation, which is about $100 billion in the accounts of the Central Bank of Russia.
“That is, when it comes to gold, here, I would say, there is a double hook: on the one hand, it is impossible to export gold as such, on the other hand, it is impossible to sell bank gold located in the vaults of the Central Bank of Russia. If we analyze the situation in general, then before their aggression in Ukraine, the total volume of gold and foreign exchange reserves of the Central Bank amounted to 650 billion dollars. 350 billion dollars are under arrest outside of Russia, 100 billion dollars of gold that they have is there, but to spend it impossible - they simply won’t buy it on the world market.
This means that gold and foreign exchange reserves have decreased not to 650-350 billion, but to another -100 billion dollars. This means that now Russia’s real gold and foreign exchange reserves, which they can potentially use, are $200 billion, that is, a third of what they had before February 24 are at their disposal,” he explains.
Further, according to Zelensky’s adviser, the movement will proceed as follows: Russia needs funds, so gold will continue to be mined, and, probably, this gold will be sold.
“Partly they will try to sell it to the population, partly they will try to sell this gold to those countries that are relatively loyal to Russia in terms of its exports. Let’s say, first of all to India, secondly to China,” says Ustenko.
As Ustenko notes, India traditionally buys a lot of gold for the needs of its own, private market.
“But I’m not sure that they will be able to buy, firstly, such a volume of gold, and secondly, at the price that Russia could receive on the foreign market before the introduction of sanctions, before February 24 in general. They will partially try to replace the lost world market at the expense of India and China, but they will definitely not be able to completely rewind the situation to the period when these sanctions were introduced - specifically for gold,” he says.
By analogy, according to the economist, the game with gold for Russia is the same as the game with energy, primarily oil.
“And if the situation with gold looks threatening for Russia, then from the point of view of oil it was threatening first of all for the world, and only then for Russia,” added Zelensky’s adviser.
Let us recall that on June 28, the US Treasury Department announced that it was introducing a ban on the import of Russian gold. As announced at the G7 summit, the United States was joined by the United Kingdom, Canada and Japan in taking action against Russian gold.
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