Russia Is Fighting Its Financial Problems By Selling The Gold They've Been Hoarding

Russia is finally using all that gold they've been hoarding.

On Thursday, the Central Bank of Russia announced that gold reserves dropped by $4.3 billion in just one week, reports Vesti Finance.

Which isn't all that surprising.

Last week, the Central Bank of Russia announced that it would "sell the currency in the exchange market in order to maintain the exchange rate," reported Vesti Finance.

Russia has been buying up cheaper gold "in order to prepare for the possibility of a long-lasting economic war with the West" following the sanctions imposed by the West, according to the Telegraph.

In the third quarter alone, Russia added more gold to its reserves than any other nation, according to the Telegraph. And over the last decade, Russia has tripled its gold stocks, according to data from the World Gold Council.

Until recently, Russia hasn't dipped into these enormous reserves.

But now that the ruble is getting pummeled following the decline in oil prices and sanctions imposed on Russia's economy by the West, Russia's central bank is apparently selling off some of its gold reserves to fight inflation and the ruble's decline.

On Thursday, the Central Bank of Russia raised rates to 10.5%, up from 9.5% in an attempt to stem the fall of the ruble and fight inflation that jumped to 9.1% in November.

So far, this has not had the intended effect: the ruble dropped to a new low of nearly 56 rubles to the dollar on Thursday.