October 14, 2017

The Central Bank of Russia has recently been buying bullion at an unprecedented pace. According to Argentine financial expert Gabriel Rubinstein, this policy is aimed at protecting the Russian economy in the event of crisis situations, including against dollar-related “manipulations” by the US.

“Countries stockpile gold for strategic and defensive reasons; for instance, in case relations between nations are damaged and their currencies lose their value,” Gabriel Rubinstein, a financial consultant and former representative of the Argentine Central Bank, told Sputnik Mundo.

If there is such a situation, according to the expert, gold reserves would be the basis for a new currency or other valuable assets in the future.

“Gold, this eternal financial resource, has a real value if compared to other financial assets. The Russian government believes that it’s better to have more gold resources than dollars. Hypothetically speaking, if Russia holds tons of US dollars and the US wanted to damage its economy, this would be possible through currency manipulations,” Rubinstein said, adding that gold guarantees against such a scenario.

The Russian Central Bank has significantly increased the pace of its gold purchases. In the period between January and September 2017, the regulator bought 4.2 million troy ounces of the precious metal worth over $5 billion, 15 percent more than in the same period last year.

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