The gold reserves of the Russian Federation today can rightly be considered one of the fastest growing in the world. At the end of 2015, in terms of gold mining, Russia is second only to China.

The gold reserve is controlled by the Central Bank of Russia and is part of the gold and foreign exchange reserve of the Russian Federation.

Even before the First World War, approximately 40% of all gold in the world was in circulation, and countries were actively trading with each other in gold. But the world wars significantly undermined the economies of many countries, and since 1950 they have been actively increasing their gold and foreign exchange reserves.

History of Russia's gold reserves

The gold reserves of the Russian Empire until 1914 were the largest in the world and totaled 1,400 tons. This is also due to the fact that before that there was a gold standard in Russia, and the ruble was pegged to gold (1 ruble = 0.774235 grams of gold). But the beginning of the First World War, and after civil war significantly reduced reserves, as part of the gold had to be exported to other countries.

The civil war further devastated the treasury, and in 1918 Colonel Kappel with a detachment seized more than 500 tons of gold, as evidenced by the telegram "Trophies are incalculable, captured by Russia in 650 million (more than 500 tons)". Toward the end of 1918, this gold came into the possession of Admiral Kolchak. For all the time while the captured gold was with the supporters of the white movement and Admiral Kolchak, its stock was reduced by more than 182 tons.

Not much time passed, and already in early 1920 the Bolsheviks spent more than 200 tons of gold on the purchase of locomotives from England. By 1928, the gold reserve was already 150 tons.

After Joseph Stalin came to power, the gold reserve began to grow rapidly, and increased every year by 320 tons. Already by 1940, the gold reserves of the USSR reached a historical maximum and amounted to 2,800 tons.

After the end of World War II, gold began to be simply mediocrely spent, this is largely due to the incompetent rule of the presidents of the USSR. At the beginning of 2000, the Bank of Russia had only 384 tons of gold at its disposal.

How is the growth of gold reserves

The increase in gold reserves in Russia is largely associated with the high rates of gold mining in the Russian Federation. This is due to the fact that a very large area has not yet been explored on the territory of the Russian Federation, and it is possible to extract gold from placers. In many ways, the number of enterprises mining gold by processing waste has increased. There are three reasons for the rapid growth of Russia's gold reserves:

• Own booty.
• International loans.
• Export of goods abroad.

The cost of the noble metal is determined at international auctions, and at auctions within the country. The significant increase in the price of gold over the past ten years has caused an increase in supply from gold mining companies, thereby increasing the gold reserves of many countries.

Russia's gold reserves today

Since 2000, Russia's gold reserves have been replenished by 862.2 tons. At the same time, the price of precious metal increased by more than 400%. Of course, there is a significant decline now, but nevertheless it is considered one of the most popular types of long-term investment.

It's no secret that gold has always been considered a symbol of wealth. For this precious metal, people were robbed and deprived of their lives. Entire states got involved in military conflicts in order to gain the right to possess gold.

At present, the “brilliant” mineral has not lost its value and is actively used by world powers as an effective tool to protect against financial bankruptcy. In other words, a significant part of the reserve (insurance) fund, as before, is gold.

"In reserve"

It should be noted that today's statistics show that the Central Banks of various countries, including the IMF reserves, "lie" over 32 thousand tons of "noble" metal. Even more of it is in the form of coins and jewelry.

In this regard, many of our compatriots are interested in the question of how much gold Russia has.

It is noteworthy that at the beginning of the 21st century, the volume of gold mined in the world amounted to about 150.4 thousand tons of “brilliant” metal.

A decade later, the above figure increased by another 15,000 tons.

About 20% of the world's "ground" stock is kept by banking institutions as assets of reserve and

Exchange structures have about 1,750 tons of "brilliant" precious metal, which is intended primarily for investment companies.

Of course, in the conditions of instability of the national currency exchange rate, it will be interesting for the citizens of our vast country to find out how much gold Russia has.

US positions in terms of gold reserves

It should be noted that in the 30s of the last century, many countries, fearing German aggression, handed over their gold reserves to the United States for storage. To this day they are located in the Federal City of New York.

Currently, the US authorities scrupulously monitor all financial transactions of the IMF, which cannot dispose of gold without the permission of the legislature.

Until recently, this state of affairs suited everyone. However, in 2011, Venezuela initiated measures aimed at the partial return of the precious metal located abroad, which amounts to about 160 tons worth $11 billion.

The state of affairs in our country

But back to the question: “How much gold does Russia have?” Let's take a short historical tour.

Russia before the revolution

The stock at the beginning of the 20th century was more than impressive. It should be noted that at that period of history there were many who wanted to plunder, "squander" and sell property from the country's gold fund. Despite this, in 1913 it was considered the largest in the world. “How much gold did Russia have then?” - you ask. There were about 600 tons of precious metal, which was equivalent to almost 1 billion 700 million rubles (at today's exchange rate - 60 billion dollars)

After a significant part of the "Russian gold" ended up in Western European countries. The riches that remained on the territory of the USSR were plundered by both red and white.

When I ended World War, the Soviet government promised to transfer about 250 tons of gold to Germany as compensation.

In the 1920s, USSR officials parted with 200 tons of gold in order to buy "expensive" English and Swiss locomotives. End up at the time Soviet authority"squandered" more than 500 tons of precious metal.

By the beginning of the 1930s, the gold reserves of the USSR did not exceed 150 tons.

During the years of collectivization, the authorities began to actively engage in gold mining. As a result, in the early 1950s, our country extracted over 2,051 tons of gold from the bowels of the earth - this figure exceeded the gold reserves of "tsarist" Russia.

Decades passed, the "gold" fund decreased, and by the mid-80s its size was already about 700 tons.

After perestroika

In the early 1990s, a period of "mass sale" by the government began, as a result of which the country's gold reserve fell to 480 tons.

In 1992, Boris Yeltsin continued the policy of "large-scale sale", and the volume of gold reserves decreased to 290 tons.

Beginning of the 21st century

At the beginning of the new millennium, officials began to focus more on the methods of gold mining, due to which its production began to increase.

Already a decade later, our country was able to oust Japan and take the 8th line in the rating of states with large deposits of "noble metal". Do you want to know how many tons of gold there were in Russia in 2010? Approximately 800. At the beginning of 2011, the head of the Central Bank announced that the financial structure intends to increase the share of the precious metal in the gold and foreign exchange reserve, acquiring over 100 tons of ingots every year.

Not everyone has information about how much gold reserves in Russia have been accumulated to 871.1 tons. The leaders in these positions today are such countries as China, India, Germany. Production has also been increased in Kazakhstan and Belarus.

Our days

Of course, many are primarily interested in the question of how much gold Russia now has. It should be emphasized that over the past five years, our country has increased the volume of gold reserves by at least one and a half times.

And yet, how much gold is mined in Russia at the present time? If we take into account 2014, then 272 tons of gold were mined during its period. As the practice of recent years shows, on average, from 200 to 300 tons of precious metal are mined in our country in 12 months. That's how much gold Russia produces annually. Agree, this is a lot. If we talk about today, then our country has about 1200 tons of gold.

Where treasures are mined in our country

The strategic regions for the extraction of precious metal in our country are: the Republic of Bashkortostan, Magadan, Irkutsk regions, Krasnoyarsk Territory, Khabarovsk Territory. The main enterprises in this area can be considered OJSC Gold of the Northern Urals, ZRK and CJSC Magadan Silver, OJSC Seligdar, LLC Neryungri-Metallik, CJSC Rudnik Aprelkovo.

Where is wealth stored?

About 70% of the gold and foreign exchange fund of Russia is concentrated in the metropolitan metropolis, namely in the premises of the Central Depository of the Bank of Russia. The main treasure is stored in ingots, which are arranged in 6100 boxes. The weight of one standard ingot averages from 10 to 14 kilograms. The mass of a measured ingot varies from 100 to 1000 grams.

At present, our country's gold reserves are an integral part of the stabilization fund, which will provide protection for Russians in case of economic shocks.

One way or another, but today every inhabitant of our state can form his own gold reserve by opening a metal deposit or buying an ingot of a “brilliant” mineral at a banking institution.

Definition:
Gold and foreign exchange (international) reserves of the Central Bank of Russia are highly liquid high-quality foreign assets available Central Bank and the Government of Russia.

Dimensions in numbers:

The volume of gold and foreign exchange reserves of Russia today

532,9 billion US dollars, data as of 04.10.2019

Official information of the Central Bank:
(Total value. Weekly dynamics)
see

Gold and foreign exchange reserves of Russia 2019 - 1993

Official information of the Central Bank:
(By separate structural positions. Dynamics by months)

The volume of gold reserves in Russia's reserves, not only in value terms (million US dollars), but also measured in troy ounces, can be viewed (Section: "Statistics" - "Macroeconomic Financial Statistics" - "Monetary and Financial Statistics" - "Statistics of the external sector" - "International reserve assets and other liquidity in foreign currency of the Russian Federation" - Official information of the Central Bank).

Distribution of Bank of Russia assets

(Data as of March 31, 2019, provided by the Central Bank with a six-month lag)

Fig.1
In foreign currencies and gold (% of their market value)

Fig.2
Geographic distribution

Trends 2019

Data for 2019

Russia continues to build up its gold reserves at a record pace, outpacing China, which recent times also sharply increased purchases of the precious metal and came in second place in this indicator.

Currently, most of the foreign assets are located in China - $65 billion (13.4% of the total). The share of the United States on this indicator fell sharply compared to last year: 9.2%, and was 29.2%.

Data for 2018

The Bank of Russia has become the world's largest buyer of gold, purchasing 273 tons of this precious metal over the past year.

By the beginning of 2019, Russia's gold reserves exceeded 2.1 thousand tons (67.9 million pure troy ounces).

This precious metal accounts for more than 18.5% of the total Russian international reserves.

Earlier, the Central Bank announced the target level it plans to reach: $500 billion.

This level was reached in June 2019.

From other changes, one can notice a significant increase in the amount of gold in their reserve structure. Over the past 10 years, investments in this precious metal have more than quadrupled in value, with a particularly rapid increase in the last two years.
The Central Bank buys monetary gold on the domestic market from the country's gold mining enterprises.

Recently, Russia, having displaced China, entered the list of countries in whose reserves the largest volumes of gold are stored, taking 5th position in it. Here is the rating:

1. USA - 8 thousand tons
2. Germany - 3 thousand tons
3-4. Italy and France - 2.5 thousand tons
5. Russia - 2100 tons
6. China - 1844 tons

The structure of Russia's international reserves:

foreign exchange reserves

monetary gold

Foreign exchange reserves, in turn, include:

Foreign currency (it can be both cash and highly liquid non-cash assets in foreign banks and credit institutions, debt securities and other financial claims against non-residents...)

Financial assets of the Russian Federation in the International Monetary Fund. This is an account in the SDR (or SDR - Special Drawing Rights - SDR, Special Drawing Rights) and a reserve position in the IMF.

Monetary gold (sometimes the expression "Gold reserve" is used) consists of gold coins and bars with a fineness of at least 995.

Where are stored

The bulk of foreign exchange reserves are non-cash financial assets, which do not require special vaults. And foreign currency in cash (banknotes and coins), as well as gold reserves, require specially equipped storage areas. These are a number of vaults of the Central Bank of Russia. They are located in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and, probably, somewhere else - after all, each of the Central Bank's settlement centers has its own vault. In total, there are about 600 such settlement centers in Russia. The Moscow Central Bank Depository is located on Pravda Street, its address is not hidden. Official information was published that most of the "gold" reserve is saved here.

Part of the gold reserves of our international reserves are not stored in Russia, but in safekeeping abroad, in particular in the United States. Such is the specificity of international financial relations that many countries, including China, Germany, England, France, have entrusted their metal gold and foreign exchange reserves, or part of them, to America. This can be convenient for various reasons, for example, to replenish the reserve or to quickly sell part of the gold or platinum in case of market price changes. According to information published by the Central Bank in early October 2019, most of the assets abroad are placed in China.

Gold reserves and state funds - what's the difference

Reserve Fund (ceased to exist in 2018) and are part of Russia's Gold and Foreign Exchange Reserves. The difference between funds and other reserves is that the Reserve Fund and the NWF are managed by the Ministry of Finance, not the Central Bank. For example, when they say that it was decided to spend part of the Reserve Fund, this means that the Ministry of Finance sells these foreign currency funds to the Central Bank at the market rate to cover the budget deficit.

This is one of the country's foreign exchange reserves controlled by the Central Bank and Russia's gold reserves today (March 1, 2018) are 1880 tons, which is slightly more than last year, i.e. stocks are growing. These indicators put Russian Federation on a par with other countries in the world that have the largest gold reserves.

Growth and decline in gold reserves

Russia's gold reserve never arrives in a static state. On the contrary, its quantity is in constant motion. So in 1940, the highest mark of the gold and foreign exchange reserve was recorded - 2,800 tons, while in 2000 its volumes were already equal to 384 tons.

The amount of valuable metal of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, first of all, depends on the rate of production produced in the territory of our country. The more gold is mined in Russia, the higher the Russian reserve becomes. Growth is also influenced by factors such as:

• International lending;
• Export trade;
• Purchase of gold.

Accordingly, these factors can affect both growth and its decline. For example, in the absence of export trade, international loans and low production of the precious metal, the level of gold and foreign exchange reserves will begin to plummet.

Also, the gold reserves of Russia today are very dependent on the value of the gold itself, which is set by external (international) and domestic (Russian) auctions. The higher the price of the precious metal, the more profitable gold mining becomes for mining enterprises.

Where is Russia's gold reserves stored?

Two-thirds of the total gold and foreign exchange reserves of the Russian Federation are kept in the main vault of the Central Bank of our country. It is located in the city of Moscow, and its area is about 17,000 m2, of which 1,500 m2 is reserved for storing gold reserves. Another 608 divisions of the Central Bank are also involved in the storage of state gold.

The safety of the valuable metal in Russia is represented by ingots, the weight of which ranges from 14 to 10 kg. There are also ingots of smaller sizes, weighing from 0.1 to 1 kg.

Positions of Russia in the world

Today, Russia's gold reserve in terms of volume (1,476.63 tons) is in sixth place among other countries in the world. The top five include the following states:

1. United States of America - 8 133.5 tons. America has been in first place among other golden powers for quite a long time. However, there were times (1952) when its gold and foreign exchange reserves amounted to about 20,663 tons of precious metal. Since then, the US has begun to gradually lose its reserve.
2. Germany - 3,381 tons. Germany is one of the few countries with the most constant amount of gold reserves, which has remained virtually unchanged since 1961. However, since 2015, it also began to actively accumulate its gold and foreign exchange reserves.
3. Italy - 2 451.8 t. Italy's gold reserves have been virtually static since 1999.
4. France - 2 435.7 tons. This state cannot boast of the same stability of the gold and foreign exchange reserves as Germany or Italy. The Central Bank of France suffered serious losses for a long time due to the difficult economic situation in the country. However, since the end of 2015, there has been a significant increase in French gold reserves, which allowed the country to reach fourth place among other gold powers.
5. China - 1 808.3 tons In the period from 2015 to 2016, a significant jump in the gold reserves of the Middle Kingdom was recorded, which allowed it to bypass Russia in the ranking of the gold powers of the whole world. However, it is worth noting the fact that China's gold reserve is only 1.8% of its total foreign exchange reserves, currently estimated at $3,000,000,000,000.33.

Also, the countries leading in the amount of yellow metal for 2016 include Switzerland (1040.1 tons), Japan (765.2 tons), the Netherlands (612.5 tons) and India (557.8 tons). It is worth noting that most of India's gold and foreign exchange reserves are privately owned precious metals.

Status today

The Russian Federation today is rapidly accumulating its gold reserves. So at the time of 1992, the total amount of gold in the country, together with private storage, was only about 290 tons. Since 1999, an intensive increase in the gold and foreign exchange reserve began, which continues to the present. So Russia was able to take a solid sixth place. A strong help in this matter was the large-scale work on the extraction of yellow metal in the country and its active purchase.

I tried to make several charts on the gold reserves and gold mining of the USSR. It turned out to be not so simple: the early data is still back and forth (you can take it from Osokina), but the sources differ between 1933-1957.
Here is what happened as a result of gold mining.

Pre-revolutionary data are taken from Sharago's statistical collections and from the "Commercial and Industrial World of Russia". The data inside the collections also differ, but not too much - mainly due to the extraction / handing over to the laboratory / receiving chemically pure gold. He took data that fit with Osokina. (*note - the same chart http://golden-inform.ru/dobycha-zolota/rossija-skupaet-zoloto-2014/)
The gold reserve looks like this.

The last (highest) point for the gold reserves of the Republic of Ingushetia is here on March 23, 1916 - 2672 million gold rubles (2069 tons). Next - November 1, 1917 - 1101.7 million gold rubles (853 tons).
The cessation of the fall of the gold reserve in 1965 is not "they threw off the corn and immediately healed." Just before 1964. The USSR did not give long loans ( maximum term 5 years). And in 1964, England opened a credit line to the USSR with a repayment period of up to 15 years, and the rest followed after England: "here the card flooded us" (c). As a result, at the end of 1982, the gold reserve was 437.9 tons, but in addition to this, there was another 17 billion dollars of debt, which, translated into gold, means about 1,500 tons. With this result, we have come to the end of the stagnation and the beginning of the era of low oil prices.
It is also worth noting that at the time of the post-war famine we had 1.5 thousand tons of gold, in the United States the maximum area under wheat, and besides, in 1946, 1947 we managed to export 2.5 million tons of grain, 80 thousand tons of flour and a bunch of products put into strategic reserves. In this sense, the sale of gold in 1963-64 for food, I like it much more than Stalin's hoarding.
Data, in addition to the sources mentioned above, are taken from:
1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 **- (** note these links are not working)

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Russia's gold reserves for 2018

This is one of the country's foreign exchange reserves controlled by the Central Bank and Russia's gold reserves today (March 1, 2018) are 1880 tons, which is slightly more than last year, i.e. stocks are growing. These indicators put the Russian Federation on a par with other countries in the world that have the largest gold reserves.

Growth and decline in gold reserves

Russia's gold reserve never arrives in a static state. On the contrary, its quantity is in constant motion. So in 1940 year, the highest mark of the gold and foreign exchange reserve was recorded - 2 800 t, while in 2000 its volumes were already equal to 384 tons.

Where is Russia's gold reserves stored?

Two-thirds of the total gold and foreign exchange reserves of the Russian Federation are kept in the main vault of the Central Bank of our country. It is located in the city of Moscow, and its area is about 17,000 m2, of which 1,500 m2 is reserved for storing gold reserves. Another 608 divisions of the Central Bank are also involved in the storage of state gold.

The safety of the valuable metal in Russia is represented by ingots, the weight of which ranges from 14 to 10 kg. There are also ingots of smaller sizes, weighing from 0.1 to 1 kg.

Positions of Russia in the world

Today, Russia's gold reserve in terms of volume (1,476.63 tons) is in sixth place among other countries in the world. The top five include the following states:

1. United States of America - 8 133.5 tons. America has been in first place among other golden powers for quite a long time. However, there were times (1952) when its gold and foreign exchange reserves amounted to about 20,663 tons of precious metal. Since then, the US has begun to gradually lose its reserve.


2. Germany - 3,381 tons. Germany is one of the few countries with the most constant amount of gold reserves, which has remained virtually unchanged since 1961. However, since 2015, it also began to actively accumulate its gold and foreign exchange reserves.


3. Italy - 2 451.8 t. Italy's gold reserves have been virtually static since 1999.


4. France - 2 435.7 tons. This state cannot boast of the same stability of the gold and foreign exchange reserves as Germany or Italy. The Central Bank of France suffered serious losses for a long time due to the difficult economic situation in the country. However, since the end of 2015, there has been a significant increase in French gold reserves, which allowed the country to reach fourth place among other gold powers.


5. China - 1 808.3 tons In the period from 2015 to 2016, a significant jump in the gold reserves of the Middle Kingdom was recorded, which allowed it to bypass Russia in the ranking of the gold powers of the whole world. However, it is worth noting the fact that China's gold reserve is only 1.8% of its total foreign exchange reserves, currently estimated at $3,000,000,000,000.33.

Also, the countries leading in the amount of yellow metal for 2016 include Switzerland (1040.1 tons), Japan (765.2 tons), the Netherlands (612.5 tons) and India (557.8 tons). It is worth noting that most of India's gold and foreign exchange reserves are privately owned precious metals.

Status today

The Russian Federation today is rapidly accumulating its gold reserves. So at the time of 1992, the total amount of gold in the country, together with private storage, was only about 290 tons.