Rouble Nationalization – the Way to Russia’s Freedom. Nikolay Starikov
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href="#n_29" type="note">[29] Is it much? You can answer this question yourself. First, look at the size of the gold and foreign currency reserve of the Central Bank.[30] These figures are published every day. Today the reserves amount to ca. 465 billion dollars. Now, you tell me whether three billion ROUBLES is a lot compared to 465 billion DOLLARS. This is very little. It is not the registered capital that matters but the assets of the Central Bank, its gold and foreign currency reserves. This is the 'grand prix', so to speak. And it is very peculiar that the gold and foreign currency reserves should be described in the law as 'other property'. Yet the most interesting part is ahead.
The gold and foreign currency reserves of the Bank Russia do not belong to Russia itself.
How else would you explain the following: 'Withdrawal and encumbrance of the aforementioned property without consent of the Bank of Russia shall not be allowed'. If the states owns the property, then it does not need consent from an organisation that uses the property ON BEHALF OF THE STATE. If the states owns a plot of land, it does not need any consent from the current tenant in order to build something on the land or sell it. In the case of the Central Bank we get a very strange picture – Russian citizens, voters, the people, elected high officials and through these officials granted the Central Bank with authorities in the financial sphere. It was entrusted with the country's gold and foreign currency reserves. And now they cannot use these values without consent of the Central Bank. Imagine that you let someone your own flat and then would not be able to use this flat without the tenant's consent.
'The state shall not be liable for the obligations of the Bank of Russia, and the Bank of Russia shall not be liable for the obligations of the state'.
If the state owns the property of the Central Bank and its gold and foreign currency reserves, why shall it not be liable for its obligations with this property? If the money and the gold belong to the state, then the state can pledge it, that is to be liable for its obligations with its assets. And in our situation, the country seems to have the money but it cannot be spent. It cannot be pledged. Nothing can be done without consent of the Central Bank of Russia. And we have come across another example of legal nonsense – the user can prohibit the owner to use their own property. Or does that mean that the gold and foreign currency reserves do not belong to the state?
'The Bank of Russia exercises the authority to possess, use and dispose of the property of the Bank of Russia, including the gold and foreign currency reserves of the Bank of Russia'[31].
Please note: the authority to dispose. What is that supposed to mean? When at a state institution, say, at a fire station or a tax office, a fire fighter or a tax inspector is sent to work and they are provided with appropriate instruments. The fire fighter is given a hose, a helmet and a fire engine, and the tax inspector is provided with a computer, a calculator and some paper. But the authorities of these employees are confined to, speaking of the language of the law on the Central bank, 'use and possession. There can be no disposition here. The fire fighter does not own the fire engine and the fire hose, and the tax inspector does not become the owner of the computer and the calculator. Similarly, a soldier does not become the owner of the tank or the aircraft that he has been entrusted with to protect the country, and a policeman does not become the owner of the gun and the bulletproof vest needed to capture criminals.
The 'right to dispose' is a legal term that indicates the owner of the gold and foreign currency reserves.
Your family has a wallet which contains a lot of money. You earned it over many years through honest labour. But you are not allowed to spend it. Under no circumstances unless you have the consent of an absolutely independent man who, incidentally, lives in your flat. Technically, he works for you. So to speak. But in reality, he is entirely independent from you. He sets the salary himself, he pays it himself.[32] And you are the one who depends on him, and quite a lot because he is the only person who can authorise you to spend the money YOU have earned. And without his consent you cannot do it. And to avoid all temptation, all your salary and your savings now go to the man and not to you. He guards the 'gold and foreign currency reserves' of your family. You find it unfair? Inconvenient? Strange? On the contrary! It is fair! Convenient! Progressive! And what is most important, there is no other way – if you are entrusted with the money, you can spend it. This is how this situation is explained to us. But you would quickly sort it out with the man in your family – you would simply kick him out. Right? But the man is cunning! As soon as you want to kick him out, he starts shrieking so that all the neighbourhood can hear him. And at the entrance to your house three more men are standing, 'just in case'. They are called 'Human Rights Organisations', 'Independent press', 'Civilised countries'. And it is not you who they listen to, but to your unwanted financial assistant. They vigilantly guard order and justice, effectively stopping you from hurting the man and making you politely ask him for approval of your expenditures. Why? Because you signed the Law on the Central Bank of your flat and now you are obliged to abide. Otherwise, all the newspapers of your district, as well as the bulletin of your company will have your portrait with nasty words about you. Your children will be lectured at school about their parent's 'legal nihilism'. And a sign saying WANTED under a picture of you will be attached to the door of your house.
Therefore, the law should be obeyed, and one should meet one's commitments because this is the way the whole civilised world lives. To spend your own money yourself is obsolete. Look around – all the neighbours live like that. They also have an independent man in their flat, and so does everyone in the building. It is hard for everyone. But everyone has something to aspire to. The boss of all these men lives on the top floor. He spends his money the way he wants, and, what is more, he is authorised to control all the men in the building. He drives around in a Mercedes, and everyone else in the building drives old cars. But the reason why he is so prosperous is concealed – they say that his posh car comes from the right electoral system. Because all his family issues are only solved through election…
Lets us imagine that you have had enough of this situation and have decided to stop caring about the three guys at the door who make a scene about right violation and carry on with dragging your man to the exit. You have decided to stop listening to the tales that spending your own money yourself is obsolete and inefficient. You were not convinced that the independent man is the key to your prosperity and wealth. In a word, you have decided to kick the annoying man out of the flat once and for all. And what do you see? Next to the lift there are three more people. Huge muscular blokes with very grim faces. The armbands on their sleeves say 'The US army', 'The British army' and 'NATO'. Still determined to kick the man out? Get ready for a fight then…
The law on the Central Bank is full of controversies. It is technically federal property, and nevertheless, the Central Bank has no obligations towards the state. What is more, should we, that is the state, decide to get rid of the annoying man and use the gold and foreign currency reserves of the Central Bank to build new factories and roads, we would be doomed to failure. The three guys next to the lift would not beat us up while we still have the Russian army and the nuclear shield. But very soon a fourth roughneck would come to the flat. 'Independent International Court' is written on his back. You must have already guessed that there is no chance for justice. The Central Bank of Russia, if the Russian state wants to use what allegedly belongs to it… can file a complaint to the international court!
Article 6. The Bank of Russia is authorised to file suits to courts in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation. The Bank of Russia is entitled to appeal to international courts, courts of foreign countries and courts of arbitration for protection of its rights'.
The Bank of Russia and the state cannot decide a controversy themselves. It will be decided by the Stockholm court of arbitration. Or the independent court of the State of New York. This is as ridiculous as if the Central Party Committee and the People's Commissioners for Finances at the times of Stalin did not solve their disputes in the Kremlin or government sessions, but at the court of the Third Reich. It was equally independent from the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party and from the USSR government. Right? Right. Therefore it could decide who was right and who was wrong in the USSR, being the court of Nazi Germany. It would have been fair and impartial.
To calculate the exact share of gold in our gold and foreign currency reserves, you need to go to the website of the Central Bank (http://www.cbr.ru) to the section 'International reserves of the Russian Federation'. Then you just need to divide the amount of reserves in gold by the amount of reserves in dollars and then multiply the result by 100.
This is legal terminology. The three stated rights: possession, use and disposal – belong to the owner of the property according to article 209 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. This means that the owner of the gold and foreign currency reserves is the Bank of Russia!
This is exactly how the Central Bank does it. The same article 2 says: 'The Bank of Russia undertakes its expenditures by means of its own profits' And what does the Bank of Russia do? Oh, it issues money. Hard work. Barely makes ends meet.