Russia Buys More Gold

Russia bought 300,00 ounces of gold in March bringing its gold reserves to  60.8 million troy ounces.  The move reflects President Putin's policy of accumulating gold in defense of trade, currency and financial sanctions.  In short Russia is using gold as a hedge against the dollar, its possible devaluation, and eclipse of the dollar as the world's reserve currency.  Russia's accumulation now passes China's.  This chart shows that other countries are following Russia's lead by removing gold assets from the United States, one such country is Turkey, its erstwhile ally in the war torn Middle East. Turkey's President Erdogan express his desire to diversify the world's money supply: “With the dollar the world is always under exchange rate pressure. We should save states and nations from this exchange rate pressure. Gold has never been a tool of oppression throughout history.”

The lesson here for the investor is to act as your own central bank by owning physical gold and storing it a safe jurisdiction, if you have enough of it (US Person does not recommend under your mattress.)  It may come to pass that Americans will once again not be allowed to own bullion.  It happened before during a financial crisis.