As Ukraine burns, Putin and his oligarchs are reeling from aggressive sanctions and property seizures. But some in the Russian president’s circle have not been taken entirely off guard. Although their assets have been taken and their access to the world’s financial system shut down, some Kremlin cronies are enjoying a soft landing. And it is one they’ve been preparing for—for years.

Frozen out from the world’s monetary mainstream, many are making good use of the currency of last resort: gold.

Untraceable, rising in price, easy to ship, and easy to launder, gold is not just a useful commodity in itself but a handy accessory to trade-based money laundering and countless other transactions that need to avoid regulation or scrutiny.

And they’re making good use, too, of its dark side: illicit but highly profitable mining, smuggling, and laundering. Crimes that wreck lives in the poorest countries of Africa. And they have the best accomplices in the business: the royal family of the United Arab Emirates.

With exclusive access to critical documents, Noon Films reveals the networks of power, greed, and violence that stretch from the golden domes of Moscow to the mines of Mali, from the souks of Abu Dhabi to the arsenals of the Zimbabwean army. They expose a gold refining joint venture between a notorious smuggler of conflict gold and the top echelons of the Emirati power; all of it enabled by oligarchs at the heart of the Kremlin.