All this article seems to say is that the Russian central bank is BUYING gold at a set price at rubles. If ruble is to be backed by gold it would mean that if someone owns rubles and want to sell them for gold, Russian government would SELL them gold at a certain price of rubles.
Information on the purchase of gold by the Bank of Russia on the domestic market
In order to balance supply and demand in the domestic precious metals market, the Bank of Russia will buy gold from credit institutions at a fixed price from March 28, 2022. The price from March 28 to June 30, 2022 inclusive will be 5,000 rubles per 1 gram. The established price level makes it possible to ensure a stable supply of gold and the smooth functioning of the gold mining industry in the current year. After the specified period, the purchase price of gold can be adjusted taking into account the emerging balance of supply and demand in the domestic market.
Does it say that they are going to sell gold at that price? If you can't exchange your rubles for gold at a fixed price, you can't really say the ruble is 'gold backed'. All you can say is the Bank is forcing miners to sell to them at a discount.
Spot gold is 1,953.48 USD, or 187,631.75 RUB per oz.
28.3495 grams in an oz of gold.
6,618.52 RUB per gram of gold at current prices.
They are fixing the price at 5,000 RUB per gram of gold, so they are valuing the Ruble at a 32.3% premium to the current market value of RUB in gold (this moment).
I'm not so sure. See what's going on in Argentina between the blue dollar (free market) and the official ARS rate. 100%+ difference between the pegged value and free market value.
Potentially, they may struggle to sell that gold later. Russian gold has specific composition - it's relatively not that difficult to identify its provenance. What's the point of hoarding treasure if you can't sell or exchange it?
