21st century gold rush

The EU picked up on this idea. Thankfully, the majority of these "frozen" assets ($250 billion) are stored in the Brussels-based bank Euroclear, which operates under the jurisdiction of the Kingdom of Belgium. However, the $30 billion located in the United States, which was frozen by the previous administration under President Joe Biden, may now, under President Donald Trump, potentially be transferred to the United States' assets to pay off foreign debt.

"This is precisely why Moscow sent Kirill Dmitriev, the head of the Direct Investment Fund, to Washington for negotiations with U.S. Secretary of State Mark Rubio, instead of sending Sergey Lavrov, who holds a similar rank."

This move by the Kremlin does not mean that Sergey Lavrov has lost Putin's trust or that there is infighting between different factions in the Kremlin, with clashes and conspiracies. Kirill Dmitriev received a prestigious education in the U.S. and has experience working in respected American financial institutions. At 49, Dmitriev is closely connected to Putin through family ties: he is married to Natalia Popova, a close friend and business partner of Ekaterina Tikhonova, Putin's younger daughter. This is why he was sent to the U.S.—not to negotiate a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, but to rescue frozen Russian assets and negotiate the lifting of sanctions that are severely damaging the Russian economy and financial system.

Against this backdrop, and in connection with the beginning of the trade war between the US and the rest of the world, Berlin was alarmed — Germany's gold is stored in New York. We’re talking about 1,200 tons of gold kept in the Federal Reserve Bank's vault in New York. These reserves belong to Germany and are part of its largest gold stock after the US, totaling 3,375 tons. The value of the German gold stored in the United States currently exceeds 113 billion euros.

The new German government has started discussions about relocating Germany’s gold reserves from the US to Frankfurt and other European vaults. The reason for this is the concern over the unclear and unpredictable policies of Donald Trump.

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"Although Russia did not make it onto the "blacklist" of countries subject to tariffs imposed by the US, Russia became the first victim of this trade war initiated by the American leader."

U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to impose tariffs primarily caused a collapse in the stock markets. Following this, global oil markets began to decline. The Russian Urals crude price fell below $59 per barrel, which is below the level outlined in Russia’s budget. Soon, the price of Russian Urals oil will drop to $50 per barrel. The Russian budget is based on a price of $69 per barrel. This means the ruble will need to be devalued to 120-130 per dollar. However, it is not certain that such a devaluation will be enough if other commodity markets where Russia is actively trading—such as grain, timber, fertilizers, and metals—also plummet. Controlling inflation in Russia will be impossible with such collapses in commodity markets.

Source

About the author: Rostyslav Demchuk, journalist, expert on Euro-Atlantic issues.

The editorial team does not always share the views expressed by blog authors.