Russia updated its record in selling gold from reserves to fill the military budget The Central Bank of Russia sold in the third quarter of 2026 18.66 tons of gold from international reserves. This is the largest reduction among all the central banks in the world. The Moscow Times writes about this with reference to data from the World Gold Council (WGC) as a whole, the world's central banks purchased 321.2 tons of gold in the third quarter, 42% more than in the same period last year. At the same time, the Russian central bank sold 18.66 tons of gold bullion and its foreign currency, well ahead of other sellers, according to data from the World Gold Council.
The central banks of Kyrgyzstan (0.95 tons), Germany (0.19 tons), Singapore (0.08 tons), and Mexico (0.02 tons) also sold gold. The biggest buyer of gold was the People's Bank of China, which replenished its gold reserves by 63.14 tonnes. Also, significant purchases were made by the central banks of Poland (40.45 tons), Uzbekistan (14.45 tons) and Kazakhstan (13.52 tons). The Central Bank of Russia has been selling gold for 10 months in a row as part of transactions to mirror the operations of the Ministry of Finance. The latter used precious metal from the National Welfare Fund to cover the budget deficit. According to the Central Bank of the Russian Federation itself, during the period from December 2025 to September 2026, the country's gold reserves decreased by 2 million troy ounces, or about 62 tons. In the last quarter, WGC recorded a decrease in inventory of 21.77 tons. The sale of gold from gold and foreign exchange balances became the largest for Russia since 1998, when the government bond pyramid of sovereign bonds collapsed, the Russian government declared a national debt default, and the country was plunged into a financial crisis. So the central bank sold 3.8 million troy ounces of gold (118 tons) in three months. But then, by the end of the year, some of the bars were bought back. The Kremlin then accumulated gold in reserves, and since the late 1990s, gold reserves have more than quintupled. At the beginning of 2022, it amounted to 74 million troy ounces, or 2.3 thousand tons, and was the fifth largest in the world.