This was part of a sensible strategy to diversify the country's foreign exchange reserves (currently $439 billion in size), which were overwhelmingly held in dollars and euros. Despite the huge increase, gold still accounted for only 9.7% of the country's total reserves at the end of June — though recent spending by the central bank to defend the rouble is likely to have increased its share.Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/russia-building-its-gold-reserves-2014-11#ixzz3IW35Dwjh