Russia case shows need to keep gold reserves inside: Serbian President
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The Serbian President says Belgrade made a smart decision when it returned its gold reserves from abroad.
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Gold is one of Russia's key exports, and the precious metal is worth some $15.5 billion to the Russian economy in 2021.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Sunday that the case of Russia - whose foreign reserves worth about $300 billion were frozen by Western countries as part of sanctions - has shown that assets better be stored inside.
Western countries have imposed several rounds of anti-Russian sanctions, including freezing its foreign assets, over the war in Ukraine.
Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov estimated that about half of Russia's gold and foreign currency reserves, worth over $300 billion, were frozen.
At the opening of a sports airfield near the city of Krusevac, Vucic indicated, "We made a smart move when we took our gold from abroad. You saw what they did to the Russians, all the money they had abroad, 300 billion, taken away in one day."
"We have decided and returned our gold to our country, we have it under our control. The gold and currency reserves are growing," he pointed out.
According to the data of the National Bank of Serbia, the country has 37.3 tonnes of gold reserve worth about $1.9 billion, all of which was returned to Serbia in 2021.
Blinken: Gold ban would deprive Russia of $19Bln in annual revenue
In the same context, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken claimed that the ban on Russian gold imports, expected to be announced at the summit of the Group of Seven advanced economies, will deprive Moscow of $19 billion worth of annual revenue.
"Well, first, let's take gold. The thing that we're just announcing that is the second most lucrative export that Russia has after energy, it's about $19 billion a year. And most of that is within the G7 countries so cutting that off, dying access to about $19 billion of revenues a year, that's significant," Blinken told CNN.
The US, UK, Japan, and Canada are set on banning Russian gold imports in a new bid to force Moscow into fully absorbing the repercussions of the sanctions imposed on the country in light of the Ukraine war by stopping it from buying the metal to avoid the brunt of the restrictive measures, the UK said Sunday.
It is noteworthy that gold is one of Russia's key exports, and the precious metal is worth some $15.5 billion to the Russian economy in 2021. Gold is commonly used in times of turmoil by countries and civilians to avoid the repercussions of currency devaluation.
