In fact, you said that gold is the superior option short-term
But that's a minor transgression, really. The much bigger one is that gold is not good even for long-term investment or holding (call it what you like) for nation states unless you control the world gold trade (read, can set prices as you see fit). And it is definitely not Russia which controls it. Buying gold is a poor man's choice, only at a national level. Russia is freezing their resources in gold which means losing time and opportunity
Okay, let me reclarify my position. I never once mentioned anything about gold or Bitcoin as an investment. I was talking strictly within the context of Russia diversifying from the USD, keeping their money's value given the choice of gold vs Bitcoin. In this case, I said, gold would be much better than Bitcoin short-term because it is less prone to tanking -- something which may concern Russia in Bitcoin's case because they aren't exactly doing well. When their shit hits the fan, which may happen soon, they'd probably want to hold the more reputable asset as far as the global economy goes. I concede that it may not be actually
good like you're saying, but at the very least, I'd say it's less bad than Bitcoin. Either way, I agree to disagree.
If anything, they should invest these resources in their economic development instead. But the latter seems to be beyond their "capacity", and all they can do now is buy gold and a basket of foreign currencies with the dollars they receive from selling mineral resources such as crude oil, metals, natural gas, etc
I completely agree.