Largest bilateral gold trade in history? China buys nearly $1 billion in bullion from Russia in November alone

NEW YORK (December 22) China purchased a record $961 million in gold from Russia in November 2025 – the largest gold deal in the history of bilateral trade – according to a new Moscow Times report.

This was the second month in a row that gold deliveries from Russia to China exceeded $900 million, the report noted, citing Chinese customs data. In October, exports of Russian gold to China were estimated at $930 million.

The rate of purchases also appears to have ramped up dramatically toward the end of the year, with October and November representing almost all the bilateral trade in the precious metal for 2025: From January through November, China imported a total of $1.9 billion of Russian gold, almost nine times more than in the same period last year, when purchases did not exceed $223 million.

The sharp increase in purchases comes as China ramps up its policy of increasing its gold reserves in order to reduce its dependence on the U.S. dollar. And while the purchases recorded in official data are staggering, the real figure could be orders of magnitude higher. 

In October, French banking giant Société Générale’s estimated, based on the contrast between bullion imports, domestic production, and official reserves, that Beijing’s true gold purchases may have increased 10 times more than the PBOC figures – by 250 tons rather than 25. The analysis was based on UK gold exports, which are one of the most reliable indicators of physical flows. This metric indicates that China has added more than 1,080 tons of gold to its reserves since mid-2022.

Adrian Ash, research director at London-based BullionVault, said what’s surprising is that China has continued to report its gold purchases at all this year despite record-high prices – even though it’s “ultimately impossible” to know the true amount.

“There were periods when it didn’t report changes in its reserves, but this time it did, even if it’s only a ton,” he said. “The message to the public is clear: buying gold is a good idea.”

Ash said all of this represents the emergence of a geopolitical scenario dominated by “fear and mistrust” between nations, noting that Russia has paid for shipments of kamikaze drones from Iran with gold bullion. “It’s a very useful asset in times of civil crisis,” he said, adding that when countries as different as India and Poland are ramping up their gold reserves, it’s not a good sign for global stability.

And in late November, Ukrainian news service UNN reported that for the first time in history, the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) was selling sovereign gold from its reserves directly to the domestic market.

“For the regulator, this is a forced step: gold is effectively becoming a tool to support the ruble, patch up corporate liquidity, and cover budget needs amid the rapid depletion of other resources,” the report said.

The move is unprecedented: Before 2025, the CBR never sold its gold to commercial market participants, only receiving inflows through the Ministry of Finance to increase its reserves. But with the country’s National Welfare Fund seeing its liquid assets decline from $113.5 billion in 2022 to $51.6 billion in 2025 – and the fund's gold holdings falling 57% from 405.7 tons to 173.1 tons – the central bank has no choice but to sell off its reserves.

The report estimated that CBR could sell as much as 230 tons of gold valued at $30 billion this year, and at least another 115 tons worth $15 billion in 2026.

“The strategy of selling gold supposedly allows for prompt budget replenishment and ruble stability, but it creates long-term risks: it deepens the deficit of liquid reserves, makes state finances more dependent on asset sales, and limits opportunities for future interventions,” the report said. “The actual ‘eating away’ of reserves – including gold, which for decades was considered untouchable – underscores how narrowed Moscow's financial space has become under the pressure of sanctions.”

In a separate report, Russia's central bank stated that central banks in ​emerging markets were buying gold to diversify their ‌international reserves in part because of plans by the G7 to confiscate billions ‌of dollars of frozen Russian assets.

The CBR was quoted by Reuters as saying that investor interest in gold was rising due to uncertainty about global growth, but “at ​the same time, the precious metal is receiving ‌additional support from steady demand from central banks in emerging market economies, which continue to diversify their international reserves amid discussions by the G7 on the use of frozen Russian assets.”

The report noted that of the approximately $300 billion in frozen Russian ​assets, $243 billion are held in Europe, while Russia's total gold and foreign exchange reserves stood at $734.1 billion as of ⁠Nov. 14.

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