In recent years, Russia has been increasingly involved in the gold trade in Africa, The Telegraph newspaper wrote on its website on Sunday, November 30. The publication notes that gold - along with cryptocurrencies - is one of the sources of support for the Russian economy during the war against Ukraine.
Against the backdrop of Western sanctions, aimed in particular at major Russian oil companies, gold is an important financial source for Russia in the war, The Telegraph emphasizes. "Gold is easily physically moved, easily melted, easily hidden in its origin, and easily laundered on well-organized black markets," the authors explain.
How Russia is using gold for the war against Ukraine
The journalists from the publication also refer to reports from the "Center for Defense Studies" from early 2025. Then the researchers reported that Moscow paid Iran with gold for help in creating an infrastructure for the production of military drones. In addition, according to reports, Russia used gold to purchase weapons from North Korea.
In a conversation with DW, the head of the "Dirty Money" department of "Transparency International - Russia" (TI-Russia) Vladislav Netyaev said that "everything seems to indicate" that Russia does indeed pay with gold for dual-use goods and military products, "especially when it comes to operations with North Korea." "A similar model is also applied to cryptocurrency payments for such supplies," the expert continued. The Telegraph also rightly notes the sharp rise in world gold prices: such a situation can really stimulate the Russian authorities to use gold more often both for international payments and for other economic activities," says the expert.
At the same time, the amount of $ 2.5 billion, at which the export of gold from Africa to Russia since the beginning of 2022 is estimated, is equivalent to about 1% of Russian assets frozen in the EU, Netyaev notes: "It is obvious that such volumes cannot be a significant source of financing the war".
Gold deposits in Africa under the control of Russian mercenaries
As is clear from the publication, a number of gold deposits in the Central African Republic (CAR) are today controlled by structures associated with the Russian Federation, which have become "heirs" of the private military group "Wagner". In order to maintain control over the sale of the mined gold, the mercenaries are allegedly committing murders, The Telegraph writes, citing the accusations leveled against these structures.
According to one of these accusations, two months ago the Russians shot dead 10 local gold miners near the Ndasima deposit in central CAR. According to local media cited by the journalists, two weeks later the Russian mercenaries captured another 10 gold miners and locked them in metal containers heated by the sun for several days. At least one of these hostages has died, the article states. The value of the gold reserves in the Ndasima deposit is estimated at $ 1 billion. It is alleged that "Wagner" have gained control of the deposit in 2021.
Meanwhile, the Russian company Nordgold received a license to mine gold at the Niu deposit, located in the province of Kourvego in Burkina Faso, this year. According to information from The Telegraph, this is the third deposit developed by the Russian company in this African country.
In Mali, the military junta began construction of a gold processing plant in the summer - in cooperation with the Kazakh company "YADRAN-GROUP" . The enterprise, whose production capacity will be 200 tons, is expected to become a gold processing center for the entire region.
Author: Alexandra Ivanova