NetEase: Russia surprises everyone with its gold strategy

After the US and its allies imposed sanctions on Russian foreign exchange reserves, almost half of them were frozen. However, Russia surprised everyone with its gold strategy.

There has been an increased interest in gold on world markets, Chinese publication NetEase noted.

During the recent ten years, Russia has been actively investing in gold to amass the assets that many now refer to as one of the world's largest gold reserves.

During the last couple of years, however, Russia has significantly reduced activity in this area. In addition, Russia exports a significant part of gold assets.

Last year, Russia exported over 300 tons of gold worth $17 billion. According to Chinese experts, there is a similar situation this year, although today Russia exports gold to China, rather than to the United Kingdom as it did before.

Until February of this year, China did not buy Russian gold, but over the past six months, its purchases have increased dramatically, the article in the Chinese publication said.

The authors of the Chinese edition noted that they were surprised by the difference in Russia's and China'd approach to the replenishment of gold reserves. Russia sells almost all of its mined gold, and the Chinese side buys it. A detailed analysis explains the situation.

Russia stepped up the purchase of gold after Moscow decided to almost completely abandon US government bonds. Russia was buying gold by selling American securities. Moscow could thus diversify its gold and foreign exchange reserves.

The Chinese authorities started acted similarly, albeit belatedly. China is now phasing out US bonds worth more than a trillion dollars. This is the difference between the approaches of Moscow and Beijing to the accumulation of gold reserves, the article said.

Earlier, the United States, Great Britain, the European Union imposed sanctions on the import of Russian gold. The impact of such a move would be limited, Bloomberg noted.