Blinken said that Russia will lose $19 billion due to the ban on gold imports

“This is Russia's second largest export after energy in terms of income.

It is $19 billion a year, with the bulk of it coming from the G7 countries.

This is significant," TASS quoted him as saying.

He also expressed the opinion that the anti-Russian sanctions imposed by Western countries have an impact on the Russian economy. 

“We already see forecasts that the Russian economy will shrink by 8-15% next year.

The ruble is supported by an artificially high price, thousands of companies have left Russia,” Blinken said.

At the same time, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the gloomy forecasts regarding the Russian economy did not come true.

As Deutsche Wirtschafts Nachrichten noted, the Russian president was right when he said that the West's economic blitzkrieg against Russia had failed because Moscow was "well prepared for an economic war."

US President Joe Biden said that the G7 countries will impose a ban on the import of Russian gold.