Elvira Nabiullina, governor of the Bank of Russia, said the country has recently shifted to actively selling gold, moving against the global trend of central banks building up their bullion reserves, because the world's central banks are now catching up with Russia.
Nabiullina made the comments at a press conference, with her remarks carried by the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.
She said the current global trend now matches the strategy Russia pursued between 2014 and 2020, when it steadily built up its gold holdings. She noted that Russia holds more than 2,200 tonnes of gold, putting it sixth in the world by that measure.
Russia's gold reserves
According to World Gold Council data as of August 1, Russia's gold holdings stood at 2,277 tonnes. The World Gold Council is an industry body that tracks global gold demand, supply and central bank reserves. Russia built up much of its bullion stockpile after 2014, partly as a way to reduce its reliance on dollar and euro reserves, large parts of which were later frozen by Western sanctions following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
World gold prices have retreated from the peaks reached in the winter of 2025-2026 but remain high, Nabiullina said, a factor that has helped push up the value of Russia's international reserves. The Bank of Russia regularly reports on the growth of those reserves. Nabiullina has led the central bank since 2013, overseeing Russian monetary policy throughout the period of extensive Western sanctions.
Global central banks keep buying
In July, central banks around the world continued to add to their gold reserves, with net purchases totalling 23 tonnes, part of a broader trend in recent years of monetary authorities treating gold as a hedge against inflation and currency volatility. The Bank of Russia bucked that trend, becoming the largest net seller of the precious metal that month by offloading 6 tonnes of gold. Since the start of the year, it has sold a total of 50 tonnes.
