Posted on 04/23/2022 4:40:45 PM PDT by delta7
In the current environment of weaponised Western sanctions against Russia, and the critical importance of monetary gold reserves as Russia’s ultimate asset, a timely question to ask is where Russia’s gold reserves are actually stored.
The location of Russia’s gold reserves is especially intriguing given the ongoing freeze of Russia’s foreign exchange reserves – dollar, euro, pound – by Western powers, and the fact that there is a US Congress Bill being introduced by some senators in Washington DC to try to ‘freeze’ Russia’s gold.
At the outset, some clarifications. Most of the gold reserves of the Russian Federation are owned and managed by the Bank of Russia. And with the Bank of Russia being owned by the Russian Federation, these gold reserves of the Bank of Russia are gold reserves of the Russian Federation.
Russia’s National Wealth Fund (NWF) can also invest in gold and other precious metals. While the NWF “is managed by the Russian Ministry of Finance based on investment procedures and terms established by the Russian Government, the operational investment of the NWF is carried out by the Bank of Russia.” So if the NWF also holds gold, which it may well do, then this gold would also classify as part of the gold reserves of the Russian Federation.
Additionally, the Russian Federation’s ‘State Fund of Precious Metals and Precious Stones’ (Gosfund), which is administered by Russian Federation institution ‘The Gokhran’, is also authorised to hold gold. The Gosfund then may well also hold gold, which would also be classified as part of the Russian Federations’ gold reserves.
This article, however, will look just at the monetary gold reserves of the Bank of Russia, which at this time are claimed (by the Bank of Russia) to total 2,299 tonnes.
Bank of Russia monetary gold reserves, 2299 tonnes as of February 2022, Source: www.GoldChartsRUs.com From 400 tonnes to 2300 tonnes of gold
In the central bank gold market, the Bank of Russia stands out for having increased its monetary gold reserves by nearly six-fold over a mere 12 years via gold buying in the domestic Russian market. This gold was sourced from Russian gold refiners by Russian commercial banks, refined to a high standard in Russian gold refineries, and then sold by the Russian commercial banks to the Bank of Russia.
Back in 2007, the Bank of Russia held about 400 tonnes of monetary gold. Towards the end of 2007, the Bank began aggressively adding to its gold holdings, and by early 2011 Russian gold reserves had exceeded 800 tonnes. By the end of 2014, this figure had swelled to more than 1200 tonnes of gold. By late 2016, the total breached 1600 tonnes. And by mid 2018, the Bank of Russia held more than 2000 tonnes of monetary gold.
The growth trajectory slowed down slightly towards the end of 2018, but by early 2020, the Bank of Russia claimed to hold nearly 2300 tonnes of gold, an official figure which has not changed by much since that time (since the Bank of Russia says that it stopped buying gold over most of that time).
The reason for providing this growth summary of Russian central bank gold holdings since 2007 is that it might have some bearing on where the Bank of Russia has stored the additional gold that it purchased over the 2008-2020 period.
The First Visit – January 2011
One of the first references to the Bank of Russia’s contemporary gold storage policy is from 24 January 2011, and is from a press release feature on the Russian government’s own website, where we find that:
“Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visited the central depository of Russia’s Central Bank, which holds two-thirds of the country’s gold and foreign exchange reserves.”
This press release, which said that Putin was the first ever Russian prime minister to visit the gold vault facility, was accompanied by a now well-known photo of Putin holding a gold bar (see below).….
In Putin’s offshore vaults.
Given the present price of gold, it ain’t Schiff.
In a few months, Wheat berries and oil will be worth far more than a Yellow metal bar.
Russian ‘prime minister’ is Mikhail Mishustin.
On Kolchak’s Gold Train II?
Whtcha gonna buy them with?
I have seen a few of these pics before, the one with Putin holding the gold bar for example.
Strangely I have not seen a similar picture with our president at Fort Knox. I might have thought Trump would have wanted to do that.
Or is there nothing there ?
Sometimes I wonder if our govt might lie to us.
In 2020 and 2021 the head of the Russian central bank told the Russian gold miners they might as well sell their gold in London and get the market rate, rather than get lower sub spot prices paid by the bank.
Does the Russian Federation really have the gold or is it residing in the oligarchs’ vault?
“Where is the Russian Federation’s Gold Stored?”
Question No. 2:
Where is America’s gold stored?
VERY GOOD QUESTION! Probably half the gold has quietly gone out the back door.
116+ cubic meters of gold.
How much gold is in Fort Knox?
I can’t recall the name, but one of the CCP’s top billionaires was busy selling gold bullion around the world, including to the CCP which bought it for the China sovereign wealth fund. Turns out some unknown quantity, I’m guessing a lot, was fake. It was incredibly good fakes in that there was a lot of real gold, and it was distributed in a way on the bars as to fool the common tests made by banks worldwide. Apparently even Swiss banks had bought some of the fake bars. Not quite sure how they caught him or what happened to him, but the article I read speculated that a significant number of the bars were being held by the CCP as apparently, he was feeding back money into the pockets of people who controlled buying.
Faking of gold and gold bars has been going on for a long time at the level of governments like North Korea, China and possibly even Russia. The problem is that they may have ended up owning some of their own fakes. How many? Well, even they won’t know without sawing the bars into sections, as sawing them in half will likely cut through pure gold.
Gold reserves? Roughly 4600 tons. The rest is split between Denver Mint and the West Point Mint.
Good question!
Why do we trade with strange people?
They have something we need/want and can’t get locally
as easily as they can provide it.
Gold has little use. Really.
The economic war against Russia is stupid, idiotic, and needs to end entirely and immediately.
It is hurting The West.
What is your source for that?
The Russian invasion of Ukraine needs to be ended immediately. It is hurting the innocent people of Ukraine.
Fort Know. Denver Mint. West Point Mint.
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