Russia’s Central Bank has persistently sold off its US Treasury bonds and trying to bring down the share of Russian investments in American debt to near zero, reaching merely $14 billion in August from the 2011 high of $180 billion
“Russia has almost dropped out of the list of holders of US government debt, being the 54th largest holder,” said Timur Nigmatullin, a broker with Moscow-based Otkritie Bank, one of Russia’s largest commercial banks, as quoted in a RIA Novosti report on Thursday.
“A further sale of US Treasury bonds by Russia will most likely be compensated by buying gold and opening short-term deposits at banks,” he further explained, noting that the reason for liquidating its investments in US debt is not merely due to political differences and Washington-led sanctions on Moscow, but also due to rising interest rates by the US Federal Reserve, which makes American bonds cheaper.
This is while the share of precious…