http://www.kommersant.com/p767088/r_528/Central_Bank_of_Russia_gold_and_currency_reserves/
Central Bank Reserves Growing The annual report of the Central Bank of Russia for 2006 was received by the State Duma on Friday. The report contained, among other things, the details of the management of the gold and currency reserves, which grew in 2006 by $121.5 billion to $303.7 billion. Long-term investments with that money increased by $45.3 billion to $78.4 billion. Detailed information has been only recently become available about the reserves. The first detailed information was published only in February of this year in the Bank's Review of Activities to Manage Reserve Currency Assets, where it was noted that the reserves have become "a significant part of the national wealth of Russia," leading to "increased interest attracted by the reserves both by broad layers of the public and in focused form by representatives of the authorities." The Bank divided the reserves into investment and operational portfolios. The operational portfolio includes short-term assets such as balances on correspondent accounts (36.5 percent of the portfolio), short-term securities of foreign issuers (36.8 percent) and repurchase agreements (26.7 percent). The operational portfolio increased from $136.8 billion to $213.3 billion in the course of the year, and part of that money was transferred to investment portfolio. The share of the investment portfolio in the total reserves rose form 19 percent to 27 percent. It can be noted that the investment portfolio was formed around the same time as the stabilization fund and is approximately the same size as it. (The stabilization fund contained $89.1 billion on January 1 of this year.) Income from the investment portfolio is lower than that from the operational portfolio.
