Russia's central bank cut the gold in its reserves by another six tonnes in August, taking this year's reduction to about 56 tonnes, Interfax reported on September 18.

Monetary gold in Russia's international reserves stood at 73mn troy ounces, or roughly 2,270 tonnes, on September 1, down 0.3% over the month in physical terms. In dollars it moved the other way, rising 13.9% to $333.5bn. The central bank publishes the holding in millions of ounces rounded to one decimal place, so the monthly change can only be put at approximately six tonnes.

The bank's own figures imply a gold price of about $4,570 an ounce on September 1 against roughly $4,000 at the end of July, a gain of about 14% over the month that outweighed the decline in the physical holding. Russia's international reserves reached $769.02bn on August 31, up 6.76% over the month, and gold's share of them rose to 43% from 40.7% at end-July. At the September 1 price the 1.8mn ounces that have left the reserves since January were worth around $8.2bn, a fifth of the $40.6bn net increase in the gold holding’s dollar value in August.

Central bank governor Elvira Nabiullina attributed the decline to state transactions under the budget rule and gold used in coin production.

"The current slight decline is primarily due to the Ministry of Finance's operations and the National Welfare Fund, which are taking place within the budget rule. Gold is also used to produce coins," she told a press conference on September 11, adding that the bank was not disclosing further details of its gold operations.

Whether the metal was sold abroad, moved between state accounts or minted into coin cannot be established from what the central bank publishes. It gives no counterparty breakdown, and Nabiullina's explanation covers the mechanism without settling the destination. The finance ministry has been drawing on the National Welfare Fund all year, selling gold and yuan-denominated assets to plug the budget gap, and fund assets held on ministry accounts at the central bank count inside the reserve total.

The reduction is already the largest annual reduction reported by our earlier coverage, citing World Gold Council records. This comparison concerns Russia’s holdings. The bank bought heavily from 2014 to 2019, leading the world's central banks by volume, then suspended purchases in the spring of 2020, after which monthly moves rarely exceeded 0.1mn ounces either way. Nabiullina said the buying now going on at other central banks resembled that Russian strategy. "That's why we rank sixth in the world in terms of gold reserves," she said.

The drawdown runs alongside a budget the state is finding harder to fund. The federal deficit for the first eight months of 2026 came to RUB5.8 trillion ($68bn), or 2.5% of GDP, after an August surplus narrowed it, and Renaissance Capital expects RUB6.8 trillion ($79bn), or 3% of GDP, for the full year.

The bank has taken out 0.2-0.3mn ounces in each month of 2026. If that pace continued for another four months, the full-year reduction would be approximately 81-93 tonnes. This is an extrapolation, not a central bank forecast.