Recently, Russia has made an effort to ditch the US dollar and to “de-dollarize” the Russian economy in order to reduce its vulnerability to American sanctions. Despite its tough stance on the greenback, it seems that the Russian government still prefers to invest in US public debt. For instance, the volume of investments in American government bonds has increased to $ 9.3 billion from $8.5 billion this August, although this was the first rise since February 2019. Private investors too joined in showing big interest in the US Treasuries. Wealthy clients of the Citigroup Inc. in Moscow have been shifting money into American bonds - not a very patriotic, but profitable decision. The portfolio of an average client with at least 60 million rubles ($930,000) now has 22% allocated to developed-market assets, up from about 10% a year ago, according to the bank’s local unit Citigroup. A common Russian citizen, however, will still be told about the deteriorating influence of the US and its currency.
