Russia dumps another 6.2 tonnes of gold as reserves sink to 2019 low

The Bank of Russia unloaded 200,000 troy ounces of gold last month, equal to 6.2 tonnes, according to figures from the central bank cited by Kitco. That selling dragged sovereign holdings down to 72.8 million troy ounces, or 2,264 tonnes — the lowest since the end of 2019. It also marked the tenth consecutive month of reductions.

The price tag on what's left tells its own story. Russia's remaining gold was worth roughly $301.6 billion at the end of September, down from $333.5 billion a month earlier. Kitco reports Moscow has liquidated about 62 tonnes since December 2025, the biggest sustained drawdown since the 1998 financial crisis.

The reason is money. Russia is scrambling to cover a ballooning federal budget deficit, and military and security spending is projected to swallow 38% of total federal spending in 2026.

It's a sharp about-face for a country that spent years stockpiling gold. Russia is the world's number-two producer of the metal, second only to China, churning out more than 300 tonnes a year, and its central bank was once one of the biggest sovereign buyers on the planet. Those purchases dried up after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, while the People's Bank of China has kept up its own buying.

Much of the metal has been heading east. In July, Bloomberg reported that Chinese imports of Russian precious metal ores and concentrates — gold and silver included — jumped 80% to $1 billion in the first half of 2025, with Russian precious metals exports to China nearly doubling in value. Bullion prices have climbed about 28% this year, with spot gold up nearly 43% over the past 12 months, so part of that jump is price, not volume, as Kitco notes.

At home, Russians are buying too. Consumers snapped up 75.6 tonnes of gold in 2024 — a record — equal to roughly a quarter of the country's annual production, as households reached for precious metals to protect their savings.