On the foot of recent reports that China is planning to diversify some of its massive foreign exchange reserves into gold, The Central Bank of the Russian Federation has released its latest data on its own foreign holdings (see here for original report).

The latest data shows the continuing trend that Russia has been quietly and steadily increasing its gold holdings. As you can see from the charts, Russia’s holdings have increased 30% in two years and seems to be accelerating.

It would seem from news reports that the Russian leadership has quite an affinity for Gold, and seem to play the market well, as evidenced from their buying strategy. They bought very little during the period of March – June this year, when prices were at all time highs, and have resumed buying during the recent sell off.

This is obviously a bullish signal for gold, not just due to the fact that reserves account for a large part of world gold holdings, but also because it shows less confidence in the dollar as a foreign reserve asset.

“Gold necessary to show – especially at a time when people raise some doubts!” – Dmitri Medvedev