Putin's good for business? Putin's a former KGB spook responsible for multiple assassinations of those he considers 'traitors', there's plenty of evidence. Would I invest my money in Russia....err, no way.
Russia, and Putin, like dictators, which is why they're propping up Venezuelan tyrant Maduro. Putin doesn't care if the average gringo in Venezuela starves, it's all a big game to him, a big loss of face though if there's a revolt and Maduro gets strung up.
I don't see hoards of people wanting to emigrate to Russia, in fact I've never seen any commentary that indicates anyone wants to go there, the opposite in fact, but there's millions want to emigrate to the USA, why do you think that is?
Where I live there's a few Russians, probably glad to escape the iron grip of dictatorship - there's huge numbers of Russians live in Britain, but not huge numbers of Britons living in Russia. Walk around London and you'll often hear Russian spoken.
But getting back to gold, the reason Russia buys gold is because it's domestic production only, and no one else wants it because of the sanctions.
