In recent years, Russia’s foreign exchange reserves have moved steadily, especially in the yuan, and since the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict in 2022, the West has frozen Russia’s overseas assets for $300 billion, mostly the dollar and the euro.
In this case, Russia can not use this money, only to quickly adjust the strategy, switch to other currencies to maintain the economy. among them, the yuan became very popular, because the Chinese-Russian trade was already tight, and most of Russia's oil and natural gas exports were settled in yuan.
By 2023, the RMB reserves in the hands of Russian banks will exceed the US dollar, reaching about US$68.7 billion, a little more than the US dollar's US$64.7 billion. This shows that Russia was sincerely using the RMB as a reliable alternative to avoid the risk of Western sanctions.
But who would have thought that the Russian central bank began to sell RMB assets in large quantities. This matter caused a lot of noise. As soon as the outside world looked at the data, it began to wonder if there was something wrong with Sino-Russian relations.
Data from the International Monetary Fund shows that in Russia's foreign exchange reserves, the holding of RMB will remain stable at the end of 2024, but will decline significantly in the first half of 2025.
By the end of September 2025, Russia's total international reserves were US $713.3 billion, of which the foreign exchange part was US $431 billion. Specifically, RMB positions are estimated to have dropped to less than US $30 billion.
This is not a small number, and it is not surprising that the western media grabbed the matter, suggesting that Russia has a double heart on China-Russia cooperation in the back, or that the two-country alliance is just a superficial article.
In fact, this matter has to start from the beginning. Why did Russia hoard so much RMB in the first place? The main reason is sanctions. Before 2022, euros accounted for a large proportion of Russia's foreign exchange reserves because it still wanted to do more business with Europe at that time.
As a result, Europe followed the United States in a ruthless move, not only freezing assets, but also confiscating a lot of overseas property. The dollars and euros in Russia's hands suddenly became waste paper and could not be spent. There is no choice but to sell these "toxic" currencies and buy gold, rubles and RMB instead.
From 2022 to 2023, Russia will purposefully increase its holdings of RMB bonds and deposits. By the end of 2023, the proportion of RMB in reserves once reached about 17%, with a total value of more than 15 billion US dollars.
At the same time, China-Russia trade settlement has also accelerated the de-dollarization, and after a Chinese leader's visit to Russia in March 2023, the two sides signed several agreements to promote energy trade payments in RMB.
More than half of Russia’s oil exports have been converted into RMB settlements, and natural gas pipeline projects are also included in this mechanism.
The turning point is in the second half of 2024.The Russian economy is facing a budget deficit, the ruble exchange rate is constantly turbulent, and domestic importers suddenly explode demand for RMB, because buying machinery and cars from China needs to pay in RMB.
China's exports to Russia rose sharply that year, with total trade reaching a record $24.48 billion, with Russia exporting $12.93 billion, mainly based on energy.
But the problem comes, the liquidity of people’s currencies in Russia can’t keep up with it. Banks have begun to raise the exchange processing fees, and enterprises are seizing a limited supply. The Russian central bank will begin to sell small-scale RMB bonds from the summer of 2024, supplementing liquidity.
By October, the central bank increased the daily sales scale from the equivalent of US$7 million to US$200 million to support fiscal spending. Throughout 2024, the total sell-off exceeded $40 billion, including in the form of bonds and deposits.
In January to March, the central bank continued to sell, the budget deficit expanded, defense spending increased, and the sale of foreign currencies to fill the gap.On February 5, Russia announced that from February 7th, the sales of the yuan increased by 17%, with the aim of stabilizing the exchange rate of the ruble.
At that time, the exchange rate of the ruble to the U.S. dollar fell to about 1:90, and the central bank had to intervene. In March to May, China-Russia trade total decreased by 8%, China exports to Russia decreased by 8.4%, imports decreased by 9.6%, and weak global demand was the main cause.
Russia's shortage of people's currencies was even more pronounced when it sold about $4 billion a month in May.In June, the central bank made it clear that it would adjust its reserve structure to keep only gold, rubles and yuan at the core and throw away the remaining euro assets.
On July 3, it announced that it would increase foreign exchange sales starting from July 7, selling foreign currency and gold equivalent to 82 million rubles, mainly RMB, every day. In July, monthly trade rebounded to US$19.2 billion, with China exporting US$90.8 billion and imports US$10.1 billion, an increase of 8.7%.
However, the shortage was not completely resolved, and around US$5 billion were sold off in August. In September, total reserves rose to US$713 billion, but the foreign exchange component fell to US$431 billion, and RMB positions shrank to around US$25 billion. In the first two weeks of October, the central bank also maintained the scale of daily sales to support the stability of the ruble.
This sale process is actually quite regular, Russia is not a sale, but based on the needs of the market. The Federal Reserve of the United States from 2022 to 2023 interest rate increase cycle, allowing the dollar to rise in value, global capital to flow back to the United States, and the yuan exchange rate followed down.
The value of RMB assets held by Russia has shrunk by about 5%. In order to lose less money, some of them are sold at a high point. Coupled with the large domestic demand, the central bank has to intervene in the market to balance supply and demand.
Experts say this is normal market behavior and there is no fuss about it. For example, Russia's international reserves as a whole rose to US$689.5 billion in August 2025, US$8 billion more than in July, indicating that there are no major problems with strategy.
Since 2022, total reserves have increased by 20%, proving that the shift to the RMB is effective. Trade settlement mechanisms have also been optimized to reduce cross-border troubles. Russian officials have repeatedly stressed that the RMB is still the preferred reserve and there is no better substitute.
Conclusion:
In general, this phenomenon is not so obscure, it is the regulation of the market. The Russian economy is living under sanctions, and the RMB has helped a lot. The cooperation between the two countries is not just to say, practical actions prove. Experts agreed that this is normal and does not affect the general situation.
You see, the global pattern is changing, the dollar hegemony is slowly weakening, and the RMB status is rising, which is a good thing for China and Russia.
In other words, if the sell-off continues, will it affect the exchange rate? This depends on the global economic trend. Anyway, now it seems that Sino-Russian relations are hard and there are no cracks.