As I've stated many, many times....if you think Chavez does not look at gold as a strategic industry...I want some of what you are smoking. Hugo...Russia....Gold....Oil....puuu... together.

The precise timing of a new gold-backed Russian ruble currency in my opinion will likely be during the maximum crisis point within the United States arena. John Laughland is a British historian and political analyst, a Director of Studies at the Institute of Democracy & Cooperation in Paris, who serves on the Russian News & Info Agency. He explains that Russia has two big reasons to install a gold-backed currency. 1) They are a major gold producer, and can therefore control production. They have been acquiring huge amounts of gold quietly for years. 2) Since a major exporter, sure to expand its export industries, a gold-backed currency would interrupt the process of a rising ruble in the floating type of currency structure. Foreigners could not bid up the ruble from annual orders, thus leading to Russia being victimized by a rising currency from its own success. Laughland writes clearly about the issues.

“Russia has less to fear than other countries from the introduction of a currency convertible into gold. Governments are typically hostile to gold because it reduces their discretionary power over the currency and the economy. They say that the money supply cannot be made dependent on the production of gold mines. In reality, this argument is bogus because the amount of mined gold already in existence vastly exceeds the yearly production, so mining does not in fact have an appreciable impact on supply. But, as it happens, Russia is a major producer of gold anyway and therefore to some extent controls production.

Secondly, Russia is vulnerable to her status as an exporter of primary materials - and as an exporter generally - especially in the age of inflation which is about to dawn. The more the Russian economy exports, the more her national paper currency will rise, making those exports more expensive. This is bad for an export-oriented economy. By contrast, the value of a gold rouble would depend not on the trade balance of the Russian economy at all, but instead simply on the price of gold itself which generally remains stable with relation to other commodities. Russia has shown surprising success in putting an end to the unipolar world of which American strategists have dreamed now for over a decade. There are no permanent victories in diplomacy, however, but a shift in the structure of the world financial system would help to entrench recent gains.”