The value of Russian gold exports has exceeded the country’s proceeds from natural gas exports for the first time in Russia’s modern history, due to low demand and prices for natural gas and surging gold exports, estimates from Russia’s central bank and customs showed . Russia’s exports of gold reached US$3.58 billion in April and May, according to customs data reported by business outlet RBC. To compare, in those two months, Russia’s gas giant Gazprom, which has the monopoly in natural gas exports via pipeline, sold US$2.4 billion worth of natural gas outside Russia. According to preliminary estimates of Russia’s central bank, Russia’s pipeline natural gas exports stood at US$3.5 billion for the entire second quarter, less than the value of gold exports in just two of the three months in the same quarter. For the first time in modern Russian history, the value of gold exports has exceeded […]