Russia apparently buys a lot of gold from its own production

Frankfurt Central banks bought more gold this year than they have in decades. Most of the gold purchases were made by countries that do not publicly disclose their activities.

Many consider Russia to be a big buyer. “There is no clear evidence that Russia has bought gold in the past few months,” says Thorsten Polleit, chief economist at Degussa Goldhandel. However, there are several reasonable assumptions that make this seem likely.

Since the accounts of the Russian central bank in western countries have been frozen because of the attack on Ukraine, Russia currently has little use for dollars and other currencies. The country therefore has an incentive to exchange proceeds in these foreign currencies as quickly as possible – for example against Chinese yuan or physical gold.

Russia is the second largest gold producer after China