The IMF could not but pay attention to recent actions of the Russian authorities. It turned out that the Bank of Russia became the world's largest buyer of gold among all central banks of the planet as of January 2016. International Monetary Fund experts said that the Bank of Russia acquired 688,000 ounces of gold.
The statistics did not include China. Reportedly, the Chinese central bank purchased about 520,000 ounces of gold in January.
Spokespeople for the Bank of Russia said that Russia's gold and currency reserves increased by $3.2 billion to $368.3 billion." Gold thus accounts for 52 billion dollars in Russia's gold and currency reserves.
"This is a quiet attack on the almighty dollar. Russian President Putin buys a lot of gold without attracting much attention to it. As long as political circles fear a new cold war between Moscow and the West, this war has already erupted in the financial sector," Germany's Die Welt wrote.
According to German economists, Putin is trying to undermine the power of the United State and Europe. Those who buy gold stand in the way for Western currencies in their global domination. This is a part of Putin's plan for world domination, economists say.
Noteworthy, Want China Times reported with reference to Duowei News that China's enormous gold reserves may crush the US currency." The publications also said that Russia had doubled its gold reserves since 2005.
Leading publications of the world started the buzz about anti-dollar intentions of Russia and China. "It appears that Russia and China have indeed decided to create a counterweight to the supremacy of the dollar," Die Welt's economic analyst Holger Zschäpitz said. He adds that "the Kremlin has been secretly and purposefully buying gold for eight months already.
Russia's massive purchase of gold cold be a major plan and geopolitical strategy of the Kremlin to get rid of the dependence on the dollar in the event the West tightens sanctions on Russia further, the economist believes.
In 2014, The Daily Telegraph wrote that the Kremlin took advantage of declining prices on gold to buy 55 tonnes of the precious metal - "a lot more than other countries."
Noteworthy, Germany has been trying to bring its gold back home from the United States, although to no avail. Washington keeps Germany on a gold leash, and the European country obediently follows its master.
The United States promised to return the German gold someday, but not now. German auditors are not allowed to inspect the storage, even though German gold reserves are the second largest reserves of gold in the world after the United States. Yet, almost two-thirds of Germany's gold is kept overseas.