The Bank of Russia central bank resumed its gold purchases from local banks on March 28 but it set a fixed price of 5,000 rubles per gram. Whereas some western commentators are describing this as a new, “gold-backed ruble,” EIR economic editor Paul Gallagher believes we are not yet so far. It could be a first step towards that goal, if the Bank of Russia is successful in finding sellers of gold at this ruble value. It won’t cause, however, Russian rubles to be held as reserves in other central banks.