Russia’s Reserves Shrink by $3.5 Billion in a Week — Signs of a Cracking Fortress
The Central Bank of Russia has reported a $3.5 billion decrease in its international reserves over the week ending April 25, bringing the total down to $677.8 billion. While Russian officials attribute the drop to “negative revaluation,” the reality is more complex—and more troubling for the Kremlin.
In the sanitized language of Moscow’s financial institutions, “revaluation” often conceals the actual pressure points: sanctions tightening their grip, growing external debt burdens, a struggling ruble, and rising wartime expenses. With its economy increasingly oriented toward shadow trades, parallel imports, and reliance on yuan-based transactions, Russia’s financial foundation is eroding in slow motion.
Despite efforts to portray the economy as resilient, recent data tells another story. As of April 1, Russia’s external debt rose 7.6% to 312.4 billion rubles, a jump that the Central Bank attributes to “revaluation of obligations” in the private sector. Yet this spike reveals the mounting cost of borrowing and the deteriorating conditions under which Russian companies operate amid global isolation.
Moscow continues to boast about its foreign reserves as a symbol of strength, but much of that stockpile is already frozen or inaccessible due to Western sanctions. In reality, the Kremlin is burning through what it can still control—propping up the ruble, subsidizing its military-industrial complex, and cushioning the domestic impact of a war that has dragged into its third year with no end in sight.
The erosion of Russia’s reserves, while not yet dramatic, is part of a wider trend: an empire forced to cannibalize its own resources to sustain an unwinnable war. The numbers may still look large on paper, but in practice, Putin’s regime is steadily bleeding both cash and credibility.
Russia may still claim it has hundreds of billions in reserve. But ask any empire in decline—it’s not what’s on the books that matters. It’s how long you can keep pretending it’s enough.