War and falling revenues are forcing the Kremlin to sell off gold reserves

2026-10-29T10:49:47.000Z

Russia is reducing its gold reserves amid a growing budget deficit, a decline in oil and gas revenues, and significant spending on the war against Ukraine. In September 2026, the country's monetary gold reserves fell to their lowest level since the end of 2019.

According to intelligence, in September, the Central Bank of Russia reduced its physical gold reserves for the tenth month in a row. Over the month, they decreased by 6.2 tons to 2,260 tons. Since December 2025, the reduction has been around 62 tons, or 2.7%.

At the same time, Russia's international reserves as of October 9 were estimated at $723.5 billion. This is $45.5 billion, or 5.9%, less than at the beginning of September.

The dollar value of monetary gold also decreased in September-October, from $333.5 billion to $301.6 billion. This was influenced by both the reduction in physical reserves and changes in market prices and asset revaluation.