Russia's gold reserves have reached a record $249 billion.

Russia's international reserves in gold reached a record $248.7 billion in the first six months, according to the Central Bank. Since the beginning of the year, they have increased by 27%, the highest increase in the last 10 years.

Putin discussed calculations in gold with the head of financial intelligence

Rosfinmonitoring considered these operations unsettled.

The growth of gold in international reserves occurs through two channels: through physical growth (when the Central Bank buys the metal and adds it to reserves) and due to an increase in the market price, said Svetlana Frumina, Acting Head of the Department of Global Financial Markets and Fintech at Plekhanov Russian University of Economics.

According to TradingView, in the first six months of this year, the precious metal as a defensive asset has gained about 24%, its price has reached $ 3,330 per ounce.

"At the same time, Russia increased the volume of purchases of physical gold in the country's gold and foreign exchange reserves after the freezing of its foreign exchange assets in the EU and the United States. Since physical gold is stored inside the country and it is impossible to freeze or confiscate it to other states, the Russian Federation began to purchase large amounts of precious metal and the Chinese yuan instead of the previous American dollars and euros," said Vladimir Chernov, analyst at Freedom Finance Global.

According to Svetlana Frumina, Russia is currently betting on gold primarily because of limited access to foreign exchange reserves, as well as in order to protect against inflation, support its own production, processing and strengthen ruble collateral.