Russia has left the top-30 list of top lenders to the United States by radically slashing US Treasury bills ownership. RT-polled analysts have shared their opinion on the move.

“Both political and economic reasons could be found here. The Central Bank may have thought that Russia-owned Treasuries could be frozen because of geopolitical tensions. The regulator announced in spring that it plans to diversify its reserves,” said Zhanna Kulakova, financial consultant at TeleTrade.

The analyst thinks the Russian central bank could re-invest the money from the sale into Chinese bonds and gold. “Gold is a tangible asset that can not be completely depreciated under any circumstances. In periods of global financial or political crises, gold will be much more useful than securities or cash,”