Friday, January 4, 2013

Central Bank of Russia refuses to comment on gold questions

http://www.larsschall.com/2012/06/06/central-bank-of-russia-refuses-to-comment-gold-questions/

Central Bank of Russia refuses to comment on gold questions

Officials of the Central Bank of Russia declined to comment on specific questions related to Russia’s gold policy. With that refusal, the Bank of Russia forms a queue with the Deutsche Bundesbank, the U.S. Federal Reserve, the New York Fed and the Bank of England, which I contacted in the past.
By Lars Schall
Officials of the Central Bank of Russia declined to comment on specific questions related to Russia’s gold policy. With that refusal, the Bank of Russia forms a queue with the Deutsche Bundesbank, the U.S. Federal Reserve, the New York Fed and the Bank of England, which I contacted in the past.
The following message was sent to Moscow to two senior officials of the Bank of Russia in English and Russian:
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,
my name is Lars Schall, I am an independent financial journalist from Germany. On behalf of Matterhorn Asset Management in Zurich, Switzerland and the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee (GATA), I would like to ask if you could forward the following questions to Mr. Oleg V. Mozhaiskov and/or Mr. Alexej Uljukajew, please?
Thank you!
Dear Mr. Mozhaiskov, Dear Mr. Uljukajew,
if your time allows it, I would like to ask you a few important questions and hope you will answer them. The answers could be given in Russian or English. Afterwards they would be published at the websites of Matterhorn Asset MGMT and GATA.
1)      What does the Bank of Russia think about the gold market and do you believe it is manipulated by Western central banks? Mr. Mozhaiskov’s speech to the LBMA (Bullion Market Forum, Baltschug Kempinsky Hotel, Moscow, June 3-4, 2004 / http://www.gata.org/node/4235) certainly implied as much.
2)      It is rumored in the Western countries, that no gold that is mined in Russia reaches the world market, but is bought by the Bank of Russia. Is this interpretation correct?
3)      What is the goal of the Bank of Russia related to a backing of the ruble by precious metals? Is there a minimum percentage rate at which the ruble should be gold-backed? Would also a bi-metal standard work? Is this in general a policy to veer away from the US dollar?
4)      Were there ever gold sales from the gold stock of the Russian central bank?
5)      What does the Bank of Russia think about the fact that some key Western central banks, e.g. the Deutsche Bundesbank, do not really control their gold stocks insofar they are located at the New York Fed (compare: http://www.gata.org/node/10550)? How trustworthy is a euro that does not only lack a gold backing, but is also very unlikely ever backed by gold due to the fact that the gold of some Eurozone members isn’t available for them?
6)      Do you think that crude oil and other natural resources will be paid in the future with hard assets such as gold?
Thank you very much!
Kind regards,
Lars Schall.
After a few difficulties afterwards with the fax that was sent to Moscow, our Russian translator, Kirill Galetski, informed the Management of Matterhorn, Chris Powell of GATA and me today about the following:
Gentlemen,
it turns out that our request did eventually land on somebody’s desk, because a bank official just called me on my mobile to inform us that Mozhaiskov and Ulukyayev have both refused to comment on any of our questions and other bank officials will also not comment on these matters as per bank policy.
I’m sorry we didn’t get more of a result, but that’s the long and the short of it.
Best regards,
Kirill.

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