Sudan Rejects Russian Illicit Gold Smuggling Allegations
The Rise in Russia‘s Gold Holdings The Sudanese Ambassador to Russia Onor Ahmed Onor recently dismissed claims entities from the latter country have smuggled “hundreds of tonnes of illicit gold” from his country’s territory for years. In pushing back against the allegations, Onor called the report published by the British Telegraph newspaper “fake news” and added the story had been “created from the imagination” of the storys writer. In its report, the Telegraph newspaper said Russia, which is the world‘s third-largest producer of gold, had overseen the more than 300% growth in the amount of gold held at the country’s central bank since 2010. The report alleges that most of the gold was sourced from Africa with Sudan being at the center of the smuggling. The gold holdings, according to the report, would be used to shield the Russian currency from the effects of Western sanctions against Moscow. The report cites an unnamed executive of one of Sudans largest gold companies who alleges that the precious metal is smuggled via “small planes from military airports dotted across the country to Russia.”40 Gold Buyers Arrested Meanwhile, Onor‘s rejection of the smuggling claims followed reports that Sudan’s military government is in fact planning to use the