Ruble was the best performing major currency of 2025, and it's easy to understand why

Ruble was the best performing major currency of 2025, and it's easy to understand why

What Russia did is replace USD-denominated securities (treasuries, bonds, etc) with gold.

Gold is almost 40% of Russia's Central bank balance sheet, compare it to ≈20% for European Union, ≈16% for U.S. and ≈5% for China. This leaves Russia's central bank with a massive balance sheet capacity for the future and supports the Ruble price.

There's also the National Wealth Fund, which commits to buying gold when Urals oil is sold/traded above a certain price.