Russia is selling off its gold reserves to finance its war with Ukraine

Russia began selling physical gold from its reserves for the first time to meet the growing needs of its war budget; this was confirmed by the Russian Central Bank on Thursday, the United24media portal reported.

Previously, Russia carried out transactions with gold, but they were largely virtual and consisted in the metal being transferred from the government to the central bank, but it still physically remained part of the national gold reserves, which exceed 2.3 thousand. tons and are the 5th largest in the world.

Currently, gold from the National Welfare Fund (FDN) established in 2008 is sold in real terms on the domestic market, which means that each sold bar is no longer under state control.

The Central Bank did not disclose the scale or start dates of these sales.

Before Russia invaded Ukraine, FDN held 405.7 tons of gold. Since then, the Ministry of Finance 57 percent sold out. stocks — over 232.6 tons to cover budget shortfalls caused by the war and sanctions imposed on the Kremlin by the West. At the beginning of November, only 173 tons of FDN remained, which leads Western economists to predict its exhaustion within a year or two.

This fund is currently split approximately 60%. for yuan and 40 percent for gold after Moscow excluded the US dollar, euro and other Western currencies from it in 2023. The central bank had already started selling Chinese currency. (PAP)

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