Where does Russia keep its huge gold reserves?

Over the recent decade, central banks across the globe turned from being net sellers of gold to net buyers of gold with official sector activity jumping 36 percent to 366 tons in 2017 against the previous year.

Demand in the first quarter of the current year was up 42 percent year-on-year, with purchases totaling 116.5 tons for the highest first quarter total since 2014, according to the World Gold Council.

Russia, which is currently number five among the countries with the largest gold reserves of nearly 2,000 tons, has been the biggest purchaser of the precious metal for the past six years. In 2017, the country’s central bank bought 224 tons of bullion with another 106 tons purchased in the first six months of the current year. The Bank of Russia explains the strategy as part of diversifying the country's reserves away from the US dollar.

Nearly two thirds of the nation’s gold is reportedly kept in a Central Bank repository in Moscow with the rest is stored in the country’s Northern capital of St. Petersburg and the Ural city of Yekaterinburg. Russia’s gold is reportedly kept in bullions weighing from 100 grams to 14 kilograms.

Russia’s gold mines are mostly located in the Far Eastern region of Magadan. The precious metal is also mined in Chukotka, Yakutia, Irkutsk and Amur region, Zabaykalsky Krai, as well as in the regions of Sverdlovsk and Chelyabinsk and the republics of Buryatia and Bashkortostan.

Source: RT (www.rt.com)