President Joe Biden said Sunday in Germany that the US and other Group of Seven nations will ban imports of gold from Russia—Moscow’s second-largest export after energy.
A formal announcement was expected Tuesday as the leaders hold their annual summit. Biden took to Twitter to confirm earlier reports of an imminent ban.
“The United States has imposed unprecedented costs on Putin to deny him the revenue he needs to fund his war against Ukraine,” he said early Sunday.
“Together, the G7 will announce that we will ban the import of Russian gold, a major export that rakes in tens of billions of dollars for Russia.”
Senior White House officials said the ban on gold would make it more difficult for Russia to participate in global markets, according to the Associated Press.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the ban will “directly hit Russian oligarchs and strike at the heart of Putin’s war machine,” a reference to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Reuters is reporting the UK government is saying that Britain, Canada, Japan, and the United States will be participating in the banning of Russian gold and will apply to newly mined or refined gold, the government statement said ahead of a meeting of the Group of Seven leaders in Germany on Sunday.
“Putin is squandering his dwindling resources on this pointless and barbaric war,” Johnson said. “We need to starve the Putin regime of its funding.”
Russia is the world’s second-largest producer of gold, according to the latest data from the World Gold Council, according to CNBC News, and has about a 10 percent slice of the globe’s output.
Gold has been the top Russian export after energy—reaching almost $19 billion or about 5 percent of global gold exports, in 2020, according to the White House.
Of Russian gold exports, 90 percent went to G-7 countries. Of these Russian exports, over 90 percent, or nearly $17 billion, was exported to the UK. The United States imported less than $200 million in gold from Russia in 2019 and under $1 million in 2020 and 2021.
Reuters reports that Russia’s holdings of gold have tripled since it illegally annexed Crimea in 2014 and the commodity is an important asset for Russia’s central bank
