I think he is making a joke, the Ruble having a gold base is neither here nor there. The Rubles value isn't pegged to the value of Gold so the 50% drop against the dollar means that all Russian debt, a lot of which is in dollars, is not twice as expensive to service and most foreign import are now doubly as expensive <-- Not great for any economy.
Russia does have large gold reserves but...
“I cannot imagine at all that Russia has sold gold or would sell gold, unless its foreign-exchange reserves are depleted,”
Carsten Fritsch, an analyst at Commerzbank AG in
Frankfurt, said by phone. “Gold is the final bullet, because gold is a store of value and outside of the dollar system and not subject to sanctions.”
- Bloomberg 19th Dec 2014 @ 3.26pm GMT