Russia's April Fool's Day Joke on the World: Gold to Soar

Mar 31, 2022

Russia’s April Fool’s Day Joke on the World. Gold to Soar.

Putin says “You want gas? Pay in Rubles. Starting tomorrow.

There is a chess match happening on the global stage between Russia and the West. Western sanctions have been rolled out move by move, hoping to put Putin into checkmate. But we forget that Russians are the best chess players in the world. Putin’s decree that all gas be settled in rubles as of tomorrow may have effectively put Europe into “checkmate.”

Did Vladimir Putin just reset the global monetary system? One thing is for sure, Putin seems to be playing defensive chess incredibly well.

Just one month ago, it looked like Russia’s economy would be sent back to the dark ages as the United States and NATO launched our aggressive financial sanctions. First, we removed Russia from the SWIFT banking system. Then, on February 28th, we took the step of freezing Russia’s dollar reserves.

As a result of these moves, the ruble collapsed, sinking to 160 per US dollar in early March.

Putin had this to say…

Putin’s chess play since then has witnessed the ruble steadily strengthening.

On March 17th, Putin pegged the Russian ruble to gold. What surprised so many was that at the time the peg valued the ruble at a gold price of $1628. The ruble was trading at 95 rubles per US dollar when he announced this move.

Since that time, the ruble has continued to gain in value against the dollar and is the strongest performing global currency in the month of March. Today the ruble continued its surge higher, hitting 80 versus the US Dollar.

This makes the ruble price in gold $1943. The same level that the US dollar is priced to gold at the market close today.

We've gathered headlines and put them in a timeline that explains the whole story.

In less than two weeks, and by pegging his country’s currency to gold, Putin has figured how to circumvent western sanctions and restore the Russian currency.

But everyone should be concerned about what happens tomorrow…

This morning, Putin put the world in “check” by announcing that beginning tomorrow, April 1st, all gas export purchases from Russia will only take place in rubles. This edict effectively puts Europe in significant stress, as 40% of gas to Europe comes from Russia.

The chess move could continue to see the ruble strengthen as other countries scramble to buy rubles in order to buy gas.

As they do, the price of gold could soar.

The Great Devaluation is occurring before our very eyes.

Our infographic and timeline is all you need to see.

Best,

Adam Baratta

Editor-in-Chief

Brentwood Research