In a significant move towards challenging the overwhelming hegemony of the US dollar in global trade, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday signed a decree banning the export of gold bars over 100 grams, which Moscow is says part of a broader campaign to counter "shadow economy" and restrict capital flight.
Is Putin's gold export decree aimed to challenge dollar hegemony?
However, geopolitical analysts believe the move is a major step towards efforts by Russia and China to dethrone the US dollar and shift global trade transactions from a promise-based settlement to collateral-based payment system.
In a substack post, veteran analyst Shanaka Anslem Perera noted how Putin's decree could hasten Russia and China's ambitious plan to replace the US dollar with a collateral-based settlement system in global trade
"The BRICS Unit, piloted October 2025, is a hybrid trade settlement currency backed 40 percent by physical gold and 60 percent by BRICS member currencies. Gold vaults are being established in member countries for same-day settlement. Russia's export ban ensures its 310 tons per year stays inside the system the Unit requires. The gold does not leave. It becomes collateral. The collateral becomes settlement. The settlement replaces the dollar," Perera observed.
Russia sold $1.68 billion worth of gold in two months
Russia is the world's largest gold producer at 310 metric tons of gold per year, and has 74.3 million troy ounces of gold reserves worth $384 billion, representing 47 percent of its total foreign reserves.
According to Perera, Moscow sold gold worth $1.68 billion between January and February marking the largest two-month drawdown in over 20 years, and has now imposed a decree to prevent others from doing the same, even as gold is now
"The Central Bank of Russia sold 15 metric tons of gold reserves in January and February, the largest two-month drawdown since 2002. It sold at peak prices, generating approximately $1.68 billion. Then it signed a decree preventing anyone else from doing the same thing," he wrote.
Perera noted that gold is now Russia's primary sovereign asset when $300 billion of its other assets are frozen due to Western sanctions.
How Iran war is helping promote gold-backed settlements?
According to Perera, there is a clear design between Russia using its gold to back a settlement system partly denominated in Chinese yuan, especially for oil trade through the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has blockaded since the West Asia conflict began on February 28.
"Iran's war is creating the energy shock that drives oil surpluses into non-dollar channels. Those surpluses are settling in yuan, which buys Chinese goods, which generates trade balances that rotate into gold. The gold that Russia just locked inside its borders."
Perera says that while US President Donald Trump claims he has won the Iran war, the conflict is actually accelerating the downfall of the US dollar in global trade. "The circuit is: Hormuz toll in yuan, surplus in yuan, goods in yuan, residual into gold, gold locked by decree, gold backs the Unit, the Unit replaces the dollar in trade settlement," he notes.
Why Hormuz crisis is weaking dollar's grip?
The experts observes that American munitions require Chinese rare earth magnets and the Trump administration's $200 billion supplemental cannot be replenished without Chinese minerals. "The war is not weakening the system it was designed to contain. It is accelerating the system it was designed to prevent."
Perera believes Putin's decree to ban gold exports is not an isolated policy decision, but part of a larger design that includes "Hormuz tolls, BRICS vaults, yuan settlement, and a war making all of it move faster."
"Gold trades at $4,517 per ounce, up 48 percent year on year. Brent at $104, up 43 percent in a month. Central banks bought 863 tons of gold in 2025, BRICS members accounting for 40 percent," he notes.
According to Perera's analysis, Putin's decree should be viewed from the fact that the Iran war is doing "what sanctions alone could not: forcing the monetary transition from promise-based settlement to collateral-based settlement at a speed no peacetime policy could achieve."
Why Putin banned gold exports?
On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed decrees Wednesday restricting cash and gold exports.
According to details shared on Moscow's government website, one decree bars carrying ruble cash worth more than $100,000 across Russia's borders to the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), while other bans other decree bans the export of gold bars weighing more than 100 grams.
The cash decree comes into effect April 1, while the gold export ban will be applicable from May 1, 2026, with exceptions in both cases.
"Effective May 1, 2026, a ban is established on the export from the Russian Federation by individuals, legal entities and individual entrepreneurs of refined gold in bars with a total weight exceeding 100 grams," according to an official document.
Who are exempted?
As per officials, exceptions for cash apply when exported through designated international airports, provided the exporter has bank statements or other documents confirming the withdrawal of funds from bank accounts as determined by the government.
Exceptions for exporting gold bars above 100 grams will be made when carried out through air checkpoints across the Russian state border at the international airports of Vnukovo, Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo and Knevichi, provided there is a permit document from the Federal Assay Chamber, they said.
Additionally, the ban is not applicable to commercial banks and on export of gold bars by legal entities and individual entrepreneurs to non-EAEU states.
Source: News 24
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