The value of Russia's gold reserves has increased by 96 billion USD, since the beginning of 2022, according to data from the Bank of Russia. However, data shows that the physical gold in the Treasury of the Russian Central Bank has not changed significantly over the past 3 years, still at about 75 million ounces.
After the Russia-Ukraine conflict broke out in 2022, the US and its allies imposed a wave of sanctions on key sectors of the Russian economy and Russian state-owned enterprises, including freezing some reserves of the Russian Central Bank. The frozen amount could be up to 322 billion USD.
The fate of frozen Russian reserves abroad remains uncertain. The European Union (EU) has not ruled out the possibility of using part of Russia's reserves to support Kiev or finance the reconstruction in Ukraine after the conflict ends.
Bloomberg pointed out that in the worst case, when Russia fails to recover frozen assets, the increased value of Russia's gold reserves will compensate for about a third of the country's losses.
If US President Donald Trump's efforts to end the conflict in Ukraine lead to the release of all of Russia's frozen reserves, Russia will have a reserve financial fund.
Gold has relatively low liquidity compared to other traditional reserve assets such as US Treasury bonds, but the current high global demand for gold could make it easier for the Russian Central Bank to sell a relatively large amount of gold than normal in the event of a balance of payments crisis, said economist Tatiana Orlova of Oxford Economics.
The Russian Central Bank began taking strong action in 2014, after Russia's annexation of Crimea led to Western sanctions and the country was pushed out of the Group of 8 developed developed developed countries (G8). In the period from 2014 to 2020, when the world gold price ranged from about 1,100 to 1,500 USD/ounce, Russia increased its gold reserves by 40 million ounces.
Since then, world gold prices have doubled, bringing Russia's total international reserves closer to a record high of nearly 650 billion USD as of April 1, 2025.
The Russian bank is currently one of the five central banks with the largest gold reserves, based on data from the World Gold Council, with a reserve of $229 billion.
According to the above figures, Russia currently has half of its reserves in USD, Euro and British pound. The rest was invested in yuan and gold. Since the Russia-Ukraine conflict broke out, the Russian Central Bank has stopped publishing data on components of foreign exchange reserves.
World gold prices hit a record $3,167.84/ounce on April 1 before falling due to concerns about escalating trade and geopolitical tensions.
Unless there is a serious crisis, the increase in world gold prices is unlikely to prompt the Russian Central Bank to start selling because there are few options to reallocate reserves in the context of sanctions.
In its annual report published in March, the Bank of Russia acknowledged limitations in investment opportunities in financial instruments of other countries due to inherent risks in the economy, currency and financial markets.
