Ummm.... what's is a "$50 billion"? Billion what? Fiat? That's for all intents and purposes worthless, given that Russia is moving away from fiat, and to PM-backed currency, along with BRICS+. How much gold is behind that $50 billion? I mean in physical, not paper...
“ Ummm.... what’s is a “$50 billion”? Billion what?”
That is fifty billion dollars that can actually write checks and buy things in the real world that we live in.
The point is that Russia raised its gold reserves over the last decade a lot in percentage terms, but not in absolute terms.
$50 billion in gold is not going to pay Russia’s growing bills for long. It can cover their current gap for about a month - if it has not already been transferred to new owners, during the fire sale of recent months.
So they print away, and issue bailouts each month to firms that would already be bankrupt, because of the sanctions, like Aeroflot Airlines, and their whole auto industry.
Russian (M2) money supply, in Terms of US dollars:
May 2022: $1,093
June 2022: $1,361
$268 Billion dollars worth of rubles created in that month’s reporting alone. About a 25% expansion in that month - more than the roughly 20% expansion of the US dollar supply, over two years of the COVID money printing spree.
$50 billion dollars worth of gold is a drop in the bucket, of Russia’s current burn rate. It took Russia several years to accumulate that much gold.
Russia is speeding over a financial cliff.
Putin did that.