The more they hit Russia, the more gold they will buy. I wonder how much they're buying from abroad with USD-denominated assets.
Anyone find it interesting that Russia defaulted on a heap of loans a wee bit back and now it is buying up a heap of gold... can't tell me that's not realated
It's a mad situation but they are obviously hedging to keep their options open to make it crazier still. Thing is I haven't seen one serious IR/IS scholar who agrees with another about what Putin's game is beyond short game nationalistic ball breaking but they all agree he's not silly enough to cause all this fuss over short game nationalistic ball breaking...i.e they don't know what the hell he wants. Either he's very clever, or doesn't know himself. Ukraine is obvious, it's written in stone somewhere that Russia is indefensible if Ukraine joins NATO, actually or virtually, but that doesn't explain a massive jump in practice bombing runs on its neighbors or commando subs in Swedish waters.
Putin probably has insider information from China. Don't forget his KGB history, which gives him the sort of education that political leaders rarely get.
I'm sure they watch China very closely but when it comes down to brass tacks China is Russia's greatest geopolitical opponent. I doubt very much that they are helping out each other any more than absolutely necessary to carry out their own short and medium term goals. I'm sure there are arms control experts who are kept up nights worrying that Russia will end up selling strategic scientific and engineering know how to China when they don't have any family silver left to pawn or sanctions bight too hard.
Most elected leaders have the backing (and are under the influence of) vested interests, and don't get the full story all the time - Plausible deniability is a factor, but they are essentially puppets. Bush was a well connected puppet, acting under the information supplied by Rumsfeld (who the Generals eventually revolted against) and his father's CIA ties. The elected leader is just a face for the masses who has public speaking skills. They are surrounded by advisors of varying rank. Putin knows the game and has the connections directly and personally. He has a significantly more loyalty and support from his citizens than most western nations - Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/markado...approval-rate-is-still-near-an-all-time-high/ He's not "managed" by a support staff or advisors. I'm fairly sure he gets the information he asks for and knows what to ask. When he goes topless he looks a bit more manly than Abbot does in his speedos. Putin hangs out with Steven Segal, and he's like the Kanye West of 80s action heros. The most likely 80s action hero to befriend a western leader is an army of Robocops. That would involve a lot of circuitry, and therefor gold. Maybe Putin is hoarding gold to delay the march of the machines. Maybe he's building Segal cyborg clones in preparation.
