Germans admit Putin's 'gold thirst' is true
Russian President Vladimir Putin's strategy of constantly increasing the country's gold reserves turned out to be the most correct amid the Coronavirus pandemic and economic crisis.
That is the comment of expert Holger Zschäpitz, head of the economic analysis department of Die Welt, one of Germany's leading newspapers, as Deutsche Welle reflects.
What was the Russian president right about?
The expert admitted that his own article last year titled “Vladimir Putin’s Fatal Thirst for Gold,” which talked about the “trap” of gold reserves for Russia, turned out to be wrong. The views of observers have changed as the price of gold has skyrocketed to a record high of more than $2,000 an ounce.
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| Russian President Vladimir Putin. Photo: TASS |
"Putin wants to reduce the dependence of Russian reserves on the US dollar and with the help of gold he skillfully copes with this geopolitical task," expert Holger Zschäpitz commented.
According to him, in this area, President Vladimir Putin acts quite smartly, but the Russian economy remains stagnant, and residents continue to live in poverty.
Russia's international reserves
As of August 13, Russia's international reserves had increased to $600 billion, exceeding the historic record set in 2008. The expert praised Moscow for such actions, noting that gold purchases continued even as oil and gas prices fell to multi-year lows.
However, German political writer and journalist Wolfram Weimer expressed his opinion that increasing reserves is still not Putin's goal, but first of all, the Russian President wants to find ways to reduce the use of the USD.
Meanwhile, expert Holger Zschäpitz said that even a record high price would not force the Russian leadership to sell gold to pour money into the economy.
