Why Is Russia Stockpiling Gold?

Why Is Putin Stockpiling Gold? -- Market Watch

Commentary: Russia is bulking up its gold reserve.

I can’t imagine it means anything cheerful that Vladimir Putin, the Russian czar, is stockpiling gold as fast as he can get his hands on it.

According to the World Gold Council, Russia has more than doubled its gold reserves in the past five years. Putin has taken advantage of the financial crisis to build the world’s fifth-biggest gold pile in a handful of years, and is buying about half a billion dollars’ worth every month.

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My Comment: It looks like the Russian government is banking on future financial chaos and disruptions. Considering how Western governments have lost control of their spending and debt levels .... this is probably a very wise Russian policy.

But the paragraph that caught my eye in this report is the following ....

.... We will soon be the first people in two hundred years to live in a world not dominated by either Pax Americana or Pax Britannica. This sort of changing of the guard has never been peaceful. The declines of the Spanish, French and British empires were all accompanied by conflict. The decline of British hegemony was a leading cause of the First and Second World Wars.

Indeed.