Russia's large reserves of gold are actually for hedging. Because gold is a precious metal and a relatively rare mineral, its value has been relatively stable. So holding gold is equivalent to holding a stable financial support.

In fact, gold is not only an ornament and jewelry, but also a hard currency unit in ancient times. At that time, there were one or two data on the purchasing power of gold.

In fact, for strategic purposes, the reasonable holding of finance should choose the relatively hard currency in the world. For example, the international currency is US dollars now, so foreign exchange reserves are mainly US dollars, so most overseas assets are based on holding US dollars.

However, due to the bad relationship between Russia and the United States, if Russia holds a large amount of dollars, once there is friction between the United States and Russia, it will be easily controlled by others. Therefore, Russia chose to de-Americanize its foreign exchange reserves as much as possible. According to research and analysis, Russia's dollar reserve was 46% last year, while this year it is only 22%.

This part of the US dollar reserves is converted into gold reserves, because gold is a rare safe-haven asset. Throughout history, gold has always been an indispensable part of national reserves. Therefore, Russia's purchase of gold can balance the risk of overseas assets and avoid the economic turmoil and instability brought about by the deterioration of Russia-US relations. It also avoids the risk loss caused by interest rate changes or currency wars.

So for Russia, what they are considering is not how to spend gold, but the need to hedge. It is a strategic demand of a country to transfer assets or foreign exchange reserves linked to the US dollar.