I'm John Batchel, Michael Bernd Stam is here from the Hoover Institution watching the Russian economy under sanctions,

and we begin with gold. Gold is the story for Russia, for China, and for the last years,

we've watched gold and the accumulation of it by the Russian Federation, especially in Kremlin.

What were they thinking?

Why are they buying so much gold?

Well, we have the answer.

Michael, good evening to you.

What's happened to gold and what are the Russians doing about it?

Good evening to you.

Look, if you look at the big picture,

the gold prices tripled since the beginning of this war of Russia and Ukraine.

So gold was $1,800 per ounce before the war in early 2022.

As of today, in January 26, it's already $5,300 per ounce.

And so the Russians, who made a lot of money on oil because oil went up, oil prices went

up when the war started, for one year only, oil prices, they earn extra $100 billion

just from the increase of oil prices in 2022.

They started to buy gold.

And since they are the second largest producer of gold in the world, they used to produce 300 metric tons a year.

2025, last year, they increased production of gold. They produced 345 metric tons. It is expected even more in 26.

They were buying gold, and their producers directly were selling gold to China and paying taxes to the government, to China directly, and to Hong Kong, which resold to China.

And the government accumulated gold when they sold oil.

They accumulated gold in the sovereign wealth fund, extra hundred metric tons. And now, to cover

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