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A senior Russian security official said this week that tying the rouble to gold could give Russia more “sovereignty” over its financial system, which has been battered by Western sanctions since Moscow sent troops into Ukraine on February 24. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin is discussing with officials the possibility of pegging the rouble to gold and other commodities, according to the Kremlin on Friday. 

When asked about the plan during a press conference, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, “this question is being discussed with Putin.” 

Russia mines about 10% of the world’s gold each year and is a major producer of oil, gas, metals, and grains.

Russia’s central bank announced in March that it would buy gold at a fixed price of 5,000 roubles per gramme until June 30 in what some saw as an attempt to link the rouble with gold. 

However, two weeks later, after the rouble had risen sharply, it reversed course and stated that it would only buy at negotiated prices. 

Many currencies were previously pegged to gold or silver, but the link was severed when the United States stopped allowing dollar conversion to gold in 1971. 

The secretary of Russia’s Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev, a close Putin ally, said on Tuesday that proposals to link the rouble’s value to gold and other commodities were being developed.

“Relying on the country’s internal potential is the most important condition for ensuring Russia’s economic security,” he said in an interview with the government newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta. 

When asked if these ideas contradicted economic theory, Patrushev responded, “They contradict the conclusions of Western economic textbooks, not the conclusions of economic science.”