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Phantom of the Soviet, Russia Is Collapsing, Russia Ukraine War, Russian Gold Sale, Russian Power, Russian War Economy, Soviet post-Soviet, Vladimir Putin
Anna Danylchuk yesterday mentioned that Putin had resorted to selling off Russia’s gold reserves to sustain his war effort with Ukraine: “Russia is the weakest ever. Now is the time to defeat it and not appease the pathetic Kremlin goblin.”
AI Says –>
Russia’s Central Bank has recently started selling physical gold from its reserves for the first time as part of Finance Ministry operations to cover the national budget deficit, which has widened due to the ongoing war with Ukraine and Western sanctions.
Key Details on Russia’s Gold Sales
- Purpose: The primary reason for the gold sales is to generate rubles and cover the state budget deficit, particularly as oil and gas tax revenues have dropped.
- Mechanism: Due to increased liquidity in the domestic gold market, the Bank of Russia is now able to conduct market operations involving the sale of physical gold in a manner equivalent to selling Chinese yuan to balance the National Wealth Fund (NWF).
- Volume: The exact date sales began and the current volume have not been specified by the Central Bank. However, data indicates that the Finance Ministry has sold over 232.6 tonnes of gold from the NWF since the beginning of the war, reducing the fund’s gold holdings to 173.1 tonnes as of November 1, 2025.
- Context: This marks a significant shift for Russia, which had been a major buyer of gold for years to diversify its assets and reduce dependence on the U.S. dollar, especially following the 2014 annexation of Crimea. The U.S. decision to freeze Russia’s foreign exchange reserves after the 2022 invasion has motivated a broader trend among central banks (including BRICS nations) to acquire more gold and move away from the dollar.
Russia’s Overall Gold Reserves
Despite the recent sales from the National Wealth Fund, Russia maintains significant total gold holdings.
- Total Reserves: Russia holds over 2,300 tonnes of gold in its total national reserves, making it the world’s fifth-largest holder.
- Strategic Shift: The country had aggressively built up these reserves to act as a buffer against sanctions, a strategy that has partially insulated its economy.
- Domestic Market Focus: Sanctions prevent Russia’s Central Bank from buying gold on international markets, so domestic purchases from local miners have been a key part of its strategy.
Related Trends
- Public Demand: Russian citizens have also been buying record amounts of physical gold to protect their savings from inflation and sanctions, with the government encouraging this trend by scrapping the Value Added Tax (VAT) on gold bar sales to individuals.
- Sanctions Evasion: There have been international calls, notably from U.S. senators, for the State and Treasury departments to crack down on Russian gold sales to prevent the funding of its military operation
Russia Collapses
As the Phantom of the Soviet, Putin and his “New Nobility” project appear to be fading. Most clearly, he cannot today defend Russia, her field operations, her people, and not even select cities from Ukrainian payback. Many within Russia will find themselves surviving this winter in the cold and dark as services fail and the machinery and repairs wanted may not be available as required.
AI may be queried as regards, “Russia, damage from Ukrainian drones, civilian impacts” — a more full image of Ukraine’s success may be found through other reportage. For example, Putin appears to be staying away from Moscow and appearing only from one or another for several nearly identical rooms for his public relations. In a similar but more foreboding vein, the palace above an apparently capacious and self-sufficient below-ground bolt hole appears to have been razed — but I haven’t found confirmation of any destruction beneath the ground. The worry for that location might link to nervousness over the possibility of nuclear exchange. The palace had been used as a meeting space for high-level diplomacy.
Rarely have so few, seemingly inconsequential words generated so many consequential ones.
In a mere 109-word paragraph tucked away in an autobiographical collection of interviews published in 2000, just as he ascended to power in Russia, Vladimir Putin tells a nightmarish tale: Once, when he and his friends were chasing rats with sticks in the dilapidated apartment building in St. Petersburg where he grew up, a “huge rat” he’d cornered suddenly “lashed around and threw itself at” him, chasing the “surprised and frightened” Putin to his door before he slammed it shut in the rodent’s face. For Putin, it’s a parable: “I got a quick and lasting lesson in the meaning of the word cornered.”
Might Putin try to erase the memory of the world by setting off a nuclear Armageddon?
Given Putin’s association with Malignant Narcissism and related ramifications, it appears he may need to be stopped by the mutiny of his remaining admirals and generals in unison. By Russian own nuclear doctrine, he cannot launch a nuclear warhead without military cooperation. According to AI today:
In Russia, the President makes the final decision to use nuclear weapons, but military commanders have control over the launch. The Cheget briefcase connects the President to the strategic command-and-control network, transmitting launch orders to the General Staff. The General Staff then gives authorization codes to the commanders who execute the actual launch.
The process for nuclear launch
- Presidential decision: The President, as the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, makes the final decision to use nuclear weapons based on Russia’s doctrine.
- Command and control: The President uses a device called the Cheget to send the launch order through the Kazbek command and control network.
- Military authority: The Cheget transmits the orders to the General Staff, not to the individual weapons commanders.
- Execution of the launch: The General Staff then issues the necessary authorization codes to the individual military commanders who have the authority to execute the launch procedures.
For Russians, the present state-of-affairs must seem both puzzling, at least (given the Soviet Era hangover having to do with propaganda and totalitarian control), as well as foreboding in light of Ukraine’s demonstrated ability to attack any vital state asset in the Russian land mass contributing to the state’s defense, economy, and industry. With the initiation of the selling of gold reserves, Putin has more or less signaled the beginning of the end of not only an intolerable venture into and toward Europe but his inability to resist the war being brought home to none other than himself–and it may be his own people who do it.
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