The US Treasury Department on Tuesday announced new sanctions on Russia that target the country’s defense industrial base and enacted a ban on the import of Russian gold.
The gold ban was done in coordination with the UK, Japan, and Canada but is largely a symbolic measure since Russian gold exports to the West have been virtually nonexistent in recent months. Early on in the war in Ukraine, Western nations sanctioned Russia’s largest gold-trading bank and other financial institutions.
According to Reuters, the vast majority of Russia’s gold exports previously went to the UK’s bullion market, but those sales have plummeted. In February, Britain imported 29 tons of gold worth $1.7 billion from Russia. In March, the import of Russian gold in the UK dropped down to just 26 kilograms.
President Biden announced the ban over the weekend and said Russia “rakes in tens of billions of dollars” from the sale of gold. But there are still plenty of buyers for Russian gold, including the country’s central bank, individuals inside Russia who are buying the precious metal as an investment, and Asian countries, most of which haven’t sanctioned Russia.
“[Russia’s] gold exports have already been rerouted since the start of the war, flowing eastwards rather than westwards, reflecting self-sanctioning from Western world gold market participants,” Carsten Menke, an analyst for the Swiss bank Julius Baer, told Reuters.
The other sanctions the Treasury Department announced Tuesday targeted 70 entities and 29 individuals involved in Russia’s defense, industrial, technology, and manufacturing sectors. Included on the list was Rostec, a Russian state-owned defense conglomerate.
It is not sanctions. But plain ROBBERY that is being attempted? Zionist occupied America murdered Milosevic and stole his gold. murdered Saddam Husain and stole his wealth. Killed Qaddafi looted his gold. Now they trying the same trick with Putin.
I initially thought that banning gold imports from Russia was supposed to prevent Russia from selling gold to buy Dollars and Euros that could be used to make payments on its sovereign debt. But now that Russia has defaulted, I no longer see the logic.
Let’s Go Brandon!
Biden and the rest of the U.S. govt is so infuriating. They make normal, commercial business transactions sound immoral. Selling energy, gold, and fertilizer to other countries is normal and good.
Hmmm. … Russia is beginning to have deflation. Their currency is buying more goods per unit of currency. As long as their employment numbers are holding, their population is becoming wealthier.
Meanwhile, prices of goods and services are rapidly increasing in the EU and USA, and since wages are not keeping up with inflation the population is getting poorer.
So…… who is winning the economic war? Not the people of the US and EU. Not the Ukrainians either and a lot of them are dying to boot. Best to end this debacle ASAP. Including ending the sanctions. In fact, ending all sanctions on all countries is a darn good idea.