How much gold does Russia’s National Wealth Fund currently hold and how is it reported?
Executive summary
Russia’s National Wealth Fund (NWF) has seen its gold holdings fall sharply since 2022 and, by late 2025, is reported by multiple outlets to hold roughly 173 tonnes of unallocated gold — a figure carried in state media and mirrored by several independent monitors — down from more than 400 tonnes before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine [1] [2] [3] [4]. Reporting differs by date, methodology and source; state outlets emphasize official accountings and ruble values, independent and Western outlets emphasize cumulative sales and intelligence estimates, producing a range of narratives about “how much” remains and why [5] [6] [7].
1. What the headline numbers say: ~173 tonnes by late 2025
Official and widely cited reports published in November–December 2025 put the NWF’s unallocated gold at about 173.0–173.1 metric tonnes as of reporting dates around Nov. 1–Dec. 1, 2025, a figure carried in TASS and repeated in business summaries and data posts [3] [2] [1]. These same reports also state the NWF’s aggregate ruble value and yuan holdings alongside gold, reflecting how Moscow reports the fund as a mix of liquid assets kept at the Bank of Russia and longer-term investments [2] [3] [8].
2. The trend: from roughly 406 t to ~173 t — large sell-offs documented
Multiple independent trackers and intelligence-cited pieces note that the NWF’s gold fell from a pre-war stock of about 405.7 tonnes to roughly 173 tonnes by late 2025, implying sales or reclassification of roughly 57% of the fund’s gold since early 2022 [1] [6] [7]. Reporting on the pace and scale of disposals varies, with some analysts estimating sales equal to hundreds of tonnes across 2025 alone as the Kremlin monetized bullion to plug budget shortfalls [6] [7].
3. How Russia reports it: rubles, unallocated tons, plus central bank transactions
Russian official accounts present the NWF in ruble terms (total fund value, liquid vs long-term assets) and report gold in “unallocated” tonnes held at the central bank; the central bank itself confirms increasing domestic-market gold operations and says it handles transactions in gold and foreign currency for the fund [2] [5]. State media and finance ministry releases therefore tend to emphasize on-book quantities (e.g., 173.04 t) and changes in ruble valuations rather than the gross tonnage sold on foreign markets [2] [3].
4. Independent and opposition reporting: different emphases and methodologies
Non-state outlets, Ukrainian intelligence summaries and Western analysis focus on cumulative sell-offs, modeling how much bullion would have to be sold to generate reported ruble proceeds; these reports often translate sales into tonnes or dollars and sometimes estimate remaining usable gold differently from Moscow’s “unallocated” accounting [6] [7] [1]. That produces a narrative framing the NWF’s gold disposals as a wartime lifeline and fiscal emergency, an interpretation at odds with Russian messaging that stresses managed and legal liquidity operations [6] [5].
5. Where discrepancies come from: timing, accounting and political framing
Differences in reported figures trace to timing (end‑2024 vs late‑2025 snapshots), the fund’s split between “liquid” and “long‑term” assets, whether gold is reported as allocated or unallocated at the central bank, and the directness of state disclosures versus intelligence-derived tallies [4] [8] [3]. Sources carry implicit agendas: Russian state outlets aim for transparency and stability signaling; independent and adversarial outlets emphasize fiscal strain and the strategic cost of selling bullion, while Ukrainian and Western analysts highlight the budgetary motives behind disposals [5] [6] [7].
6. Bottom line and reporting caveats
As of the most recent reporting in the supplied sources, the best-supported headline is that the NWF holds about 173 tonnes of unallocated gold (late 2025), with the caveat that that figure is a snapshot produced within Moscow’s official accounting framework and that other analysts describe much larger cumulative sales since 2022 and present differing measures of “how much remains usable” [2] [1] [7]. Public data therefore answer “how much” in two overlapping ways: an official on‑book tonnage (~173 t) and a broader analytical story of major drawdowns from roughly 406 t pre‑2022 to the present [1] [4].