“WE HANDLE our gold and currency reserves and government reserves sparingly.” So said Vladimir Putin on November 13th. Mr Putin is wrong. In the past year Russia’s foreign-exchange reserves have fallen by 20% as the central bank has tried to prop up the rouble. They stand at around $370 billion, with $12 billion more at the IMF (see chart). The central bank claims all of this is readily available. But there is some reason to doubt that.
