If you follow war news from Ukraine, no doubt you've seen gruesome images of wrecked tanks, burnt trucks, demolished personnel carriers and more.

Whether it's Russian or Ukrainian equipment, almost everything you see is based on old Soviet-era designs such as T-72/64 tanks, or boxy BMP armored vehicles, etc. And when a rocket or shell hits those things the internal fuel and ammunition cooks off, and the machines burn like a torch. Bad design, obviously.

But there's another Russian weapon that was also recently deployed, and it appears to be working very well. You won't find this system on the battlefield, though. In fact, this Russian device is an economic weapon, and it may prove to be one of the most impactful implements of war in the modern age.

That is, the government of Russia recently pegged that country's currency - the ruble - to gold. And right now, Russia's central bank will buy gold at 5,000 rubles per gram through June 28. (After that, we'll see.)

Here's why this is important. Russia has just established a state-supported bid for gold. In essence, Russia has recreated a new global gold standard with a well-defined floor beneath the price. This is big. It moves the gold price, and I mean upwards. Why?

A milestone vote in the Senate on Thursday gave Americans their first Black woman Supreme Court justice, elevating Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson from the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and putting her in line for a soon-to-be open seat on the nation's highest court.

Senate Democrats were joined by three Republicans in backing the judge, who won approval on a 53-47 vote. Vice President Kamala Harris presided over the vote, while Judge Jackson watched at the White House with President Biden.

The confirmation gives Mr. Biden a rare major legislative win, delivering on a promise he made in the 2020 presidential campaign to install a Black woman on the high court.

The World Government Summit is underway this week in Dubai and we've already got a bombshell to report.

Dr. Pippa Malmgrem, a top American economist who served as a special adviser to former President George W. Bush, made a statement that confirms everything myself and others have been reporting for quite some time - that a cashless society is looming right around the corner.

Listen to her comments in the video clip below.

The Kremlin does not understand the latest sanctions on Russian President Vladimir Putin's adult daughters, spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday, Reuters reported.

Peskov said the sanctions were "difficult to understand and explain," and framed them as being part of a manic Western reaction to Russia in general, Reuters reported.

"Of course we consider these sanctions in themselves to be the extension of an absolutely rabid position on the imposition of restrictions," he said, per Reuters. "In any case, the ongoing line on imposing restrictions against family members speaks for itself."

Looking for Russian atrocities alleged by Ukraine, Kiev's security officials and Western journalists find something else

Ukrainian security officials and Western journalists who went looking for Russian atrocities northwest of Bucha in the Kiev region found no signs of human rights abuses, according to phone call records obtained by RT. Instead, locals told journalists the Russian troops gave them food and treated them well. Meanwhile, a Ukrainian official complained that his own side's militia looted everything.

In a series of satellite phone calls, a reporter identified only as "Simon" tells his colleagues he visited Borodyanka - a town about 25 kilometers northwest of Bucha - and "there's no bodies in the streets at all," contrary to what he was led to expect.

The town has been "shelled to pieces," Simon says, "but there's no evidence of any rights abuses here at all." In fact, he and his crew interviewed multiple residents who said the Russian troops had been very friendly and gave them food and water and other supplies. "And we got quotes on camera for that," he adds.

"I don't know what the prosecutor was talking about, but we have seen nothing like that, at all. It's a completely different picture," Simon tells his colleagues. One French journalist may have seen a body of someone killed by shelling, but "no executions."

Beijing has said that the primary reason for the conflict is the "security imbalance" in Europe.

China said on Thursday that the fault lines of European security have caused the current Russian-Ukraine conflict. Moscow has insisted that one of the goals of its ongoing military campaign against Kiev is to make Ukraine declare itself a neutral country which will never join NATO.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi expressed his country's view on the matter during a phone call with Emmanuel Bonne, diplomatic adviser to French President Emmanuel Macron.

The Russian ruble strengthened to 75 rubles to the US dollar and 81 against the euro on Thursday, reaching its strongest levels against major currencies since February 19.

The ruble plunged to historic lows after Russia launched the special military operation in Ukraine, and the US and its allies imposed unprecedented sanctions targeting the country's financial system. On March 7, the Russian currency fell to as low as 150 rubles to the dollar.

The ruble nosedived on February 24, immediately after the start of the military operation, as international penalties targeted its freely traded currency. Western countries froze Moscow's foreign reserves, making it difficult for the Bank of Russia to support the ruble by selling foreign currencies.

A State Department source tells Fox News on Thursday that the U.S. and Poland will hold joint military exercises tomorrow near Rzeszow, about an hour away from Poland's border with Ukraine.

President Joe Biden had visited the city during his trip to Europe for a NATO summit in late March.

"Tactical and fire training at the training ground in Nowa Dęba is to deepen the interoperability of Polish and American troops and to harmonize Polish military units," the Polish military said in a statement previewing the military exercise.

EU citizens are being asked to make great sacrifices to support a sanctions regime against Moscow over its military offensive in Ukraine. But how long will Western consumers be willing to live without creature comforts?

What a difference a month can make. Not long ago, Moscow and Berlin had the champagne on ice for an expected ribbon-cutting ceremony on Nord Stream 2, a planned 1,234-km (766 mile) pipeline extending from Russia to Germany that would have kept Europe warm and toasty for decades. Now, EU officials are advising their citizens to dial back their time in the shower and invest in wool sweaters as calls for decoupling from Russian energy supplies ratchet up.

"Everyone is asking, 'what can I do,'" remarked Margrethe Vestager, European Commissioner for Competition. "You can do two things," she recommended. "Control your own and your teenager's showers, and when you turn off that water, you say, 'take that, Putin.'"

Why did Putin appoint a financial terrorist to run Russia's Central Bank? Did he know he was putting Russia's future in the hands of someone whose interests align more closely with power-mad globalists than with the Russian people? Does he understand the role the Central Bank chief played in facilitating Washington's theft of Russia's foreign reserves? Does he understand the role the Central Bank chief played in allowing Russia's currency to be ripped to shreds by vicious hedge fund speculators acting on Washington's behalf? Does he understand that doubling interest rates overnight to 20% will wipe out business investment, increase unemployment and push the economy headlong into a protracted slump? Does he like the idea that Russia's national bank is now lending money at the same inflated rate as a Mafia loan shark? Would Putin borrow money at 20%? Would anyone?

And if no one borrows money, then there's no credit expansion. And if there is no credit expansion, there's no economic growth. And if there's no growth, the economy goes into a downward-death spiral that curtails personal consumption, weakens business investment, boosts the jobless rate, shrinks the social safety-net, lowers living standards, intensifies social discontent, and threatens the political stability of the country. These are the knock-on effects of bad monetary policy. And, these are the outcomes that Russia can expect if Putin sticks with the current Central Bank chief.

And there's more, too, because the economy provides the funding for the military which is currently embroiled in a scorched earth, life-or-death struggle with the United States in Ukraine. If the economy tanks, the war effort will falter, morale will sour, material support will diminish and Russia will face its biggest challenge since the Wehrmacht gathered outside Moscow in October, 1941. So, a personnel change must be made immediately. The economy must be strengthened, domestic investment must be increased, and the correct monetary policies must be put in place. That means Central Bank chief Elvira Nabiullina has to be removed immediately. Here's more from Russian economist Sergei Glazyev:

When we talk about the nationalization of the Central Bank, (what we mean is) bringing it into a policy of conformity with national interests. Right now, its policy is contrary to national interests.... We see in whose interests such a policy is pursued. The Central Bank raised interest rates to 20 percent, giving the bankers a dominant position in the economy. Possessing the most expensive and scarce resource, money, they determine which enterprise will survive, and which enterprise will die, go bankrupt, and so on. Rising interest rates are holding the entire Russian economy hostage to a handful of bankers. ("Events Like These Only Happen Once Every Century (Sergey Glazyev)", The Saker)

Sound familiar?

It should. We can all​ remember other instances when Central Bankers took advantage of a crisis to enrich themselves and other members of the banking cabal.