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With barely a shot fired, Russia finalized the annexation of Crimea last week when President Vladimir Putin signed a law formalizing the takeover.
Putin feeling smug over his recent takeover in Crimea
The takeover was consummated by Putin with a few strokes of a pen, to the chagrin of American and European politicians.
The buildup to this checkmate event, however, had people of the world on edge wondering whether Russian aggression would trigger a new war in the region.
The high level of worry was exacerbated by the mainstream media who ignore U.S. and European criticism that’s dripping with hypocrisy.
God forbid a country who’s willing to expand its interests by taking over strategic assets in an aggressive manner.
It’s OK for the U.S. to spin tales about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq as a cover to get control of their much needed oil.
And why are we still in Afghanistan if Bin Laden is dead?
Could it be that Afghanistan has enormous mineral wealth in lithium, copper, and gold, and has long been the world’s supplier of opium which has been protected and cultivated by the CIA for at least 40 years.
But I digress…
What seems to be lost on most people is that a vote by Crimean citizens showed that up to 96% were in favor of the Russian annexation.
They wanted it to happen.
The response from the U.S. and Europe has been a feeble attempt to slap Putin and his cronies with sanctions.
Sanctions in this case will attempt to freeze any bank accounts that can be tied to Russian leaders and prevent them from traveling throughout Western Europe.
Newsflash to U.S. leaders: Putin and company don’t care to travel to Western Europe and they don’t seem to care about their money being frozen in Europe and the U.S. is inconsequential.
Gold Foreshadowing What Will Happen in Ukraine
When it comes to geopolitical crisis, one of the best predictors of the future is the price of gold.
Gold successfully predicted a short-lived “Desert Storm” war in 1991 by falling dramatically at the start of our attack on Iraq.
Gold also predicted a calm domestic environment in the midst of the 9/11 hysteria when innocuous events like Fed-Ex package deliveries were examined by bomb squads and other paranoid terror-mongers. During this exceedingly tense time, gold actually floated downward over the next few months.
It is especially telling when gold falls and works its way lower in the midst of a perceived crisis, in spite of intense media coverage.
That’s exactly what it’s doing now.
For most, it’s surprising to hear that gold has actually fallen 6% in the last few trading days, and at $1,310 it’s trading below the level where it was when the “crisis” in the Ukraine began.
Gold is falling on days where we’ve seen a supposed aggressive Russian state that could continue to expand its territory, escalating into a renewed arms race or even military conflict with the West.
But this won’t happen in the near term.
How can I be so sure?
Because the price of gold would be much firmer, if not climbing higher if Russia was going to continue on into Ukraine.
And it’s not, as you can see from the gold chart below. Gold has been falling quickly for the past week.
President Putin said he did not plan to seize any other part of Ukraine, and for now it appears that gold prices confirm this.
Geopolitical risk shows the importance of owning gold as a hedging instrument, but don’t buy gold because of the “crisis” in Crimea. There are many other reasons to buy gold, however.