Putin began to fulfill his promises, and 4 tons of gold were delivered to allies in batches.

During the most difficult period for Russia after the outbreak of the war between Ukraine and Russia, the Putin government used this gold to gain strong support from Iran, buying precious breathing room for Russia.

[Putin used 4 tons of real gold to buy breathing room for Russia]

It is reported that the Putin government recently transferred at least 1.8 tons of gold to "Sahara Thunder", a company led by the Iranian government, to pay for purchasing Iran's "Shahed" series of suicide drones.

According to contract information released by overseas research institutions, the two cooperation agreements were signed in March and April 2023. The Russian side used gold to exchange for Iran's "Shahed-136" and other drones. The total amount of gold involved in the two contracts is about 3.84 tons. Calculating according to the agreed price of $58.32 per gram of gold in the contract, the total value of these gold is about $220 million.

Currently, it is unclear whether the remaining approximately 2 tons of gold have been transported.

The timing of signing these two contracts coincides with when foreign media began reporting that Iran was providing drones to Russia via the Amirabad Port and the Caspian Sea transport route. Therefore, the authenticity of the contracts should not be questioned.

[Related contract details disclosed by the outside world]

However, the total cost of Iran's "Shahed-136" drones is only about $20,000 per unit. It is unlikely that all the money was spent on purchasing drones.

Therefore, this deal should also include Iran providing Russia with suicide drone technology and helping establish relevant production lines domestically.

Russia and Iran chose to use gold transactions mainly because both sides are under comprehensive sanctions from the West and cannot make payments through conventional international payment systems.

If they did not use hard currencies like gold, both sides would need to use Renminbi, UAE Dirhams, or other currencies for payment, or resort to barter trade.

However, both Russia and Iran are major energy exporters. Russia could not swap energy for drones, while the Russian military was under immense pressure on the battlefield, with severe shortages in domestic military industrial capacity. They did not know when they could provide Iran with fighter jets and other weapons. Barter trade seemed difficult at that time.

[The economic structures of Russia and Iran determined that barter trade was difficult]

In the international currencies available to both countries, Renminbi naturally has the highest credibility and best liquidity. However, both Russia and Iran are China's energy partners and cooperate with China in Renminbi payment areas. Both countries can obtain large amounts of Renminbi annually through energy trade. Neither lacks Renminbi reserves.

Currencies like Dirhams are only used in a small part of Russia-Iran transactions due to liquidity issues.

Therefore, directly paying with hard currencies such as gold was the better choice for both sides at that time. It remains unclear which side first proposed using gold for payment.

This time, Putin paid out real gold, which can be seen as paying tuition fees for the shortcomings in Russia's military construction and defense industry system before the outbreak of the war between Ukraine and Russia.

In the Middle East and on the Ukrainian battlefield, Ukraine, the United States, and others have obtained largely undamaged Iranian "Shahed" series drones multiple times and conducted disassembly analysis on them.

[The technical difficulty of Iran's "little motorcycle" is not high]

All parties have reached a consensus that the technical level of the "Shahed" series drones is not high, and Iran uses many components that can be obtained from civilian markets, reducing production difficulties.

With Russia's military industrial strength, developing a similar suicide drone is not a difficult task.

However, before the outbreak of the war between Ukraine and Russia, the Russian military did not attach enough importance to drone warfare and clearly lagged behind in its understanding of drone warfare. The Russian military-industrial complex had not established a production line capable of mass-producing drones.

When the Russian military realized the role of drones on the battlefield and wanted to acquire more, the military-industrial complex could not meet their needs in time. The Putin government had to seek help from Iran, teaching a profound lesson about the delayed modernization transformation of the Russian military.

If the Russian military had realized the importance of drones in modern warfare after the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and other regional conflicts, and promptly put forward requirements to the military-industrial complex, not only could the Russian military have reduced losses at the beginning of the war, but the Putin government could have saved this hard currency for other purposes.

[Insufficient attention to drones by the Russian military before the war]

Even if kept as reserves, more gold reserves would also benefit the Putin government in enhancing confidence in the Russian economy amid international turbulence and reducing the possibility of a domestic financial market collapse.

To note, it is precisely because of the hard currency attributes of gold that most countries worldwide have actively increased their gold reserves during this period of international geopolitical turbulence.

China's gold reserves have increased for several consecutive months, with a total of around 2280 tons.

Russia's gold reserves are also increasing. Data from April this year showed that the proportion of gold in Russia's foreign exchange reserves has reached 34.4%, the highest value since November 1999, with a total reserve of around 2330 tons.

[Russia's gold reserves are also increasing]

The Putin government clearly learned lessons and recognized the importance of gold as a hard currency.

However, it remains to be seen whether the Putin government, the Russian military, and the Russian scientific community can realize that Russia cannot always make up for its development shortcomings with national treasury gold.

If Russia fails to achieve comprehensive and sustained technological progress and continues to rely on the legacy of the Soviet Union as it has done over the past 30 years, the cost Russia will have to bear next time will far exceed the approximately 4 tons of gold and some soldiers' lives.

Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7510141939086279219/

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