According to various estimates, there are now about 500 tons of gold transported abroad since the days of tsarist Russia. In addition, numerous properties acquired during the reign of the Romanovs remained outside the borders of our Motherland.
The exact number is unknown
Russian tsarist state property abroad is innumerable, and in the literal sense: today no one can give exact data on where, what and how much belonged to the dynasties of the Russian tsars before the 1917 revolution. The property "smaller" is more or less clear - apartments, villas and other material values acquired abroad by large Russian manufacturers, officials and other wealthy people remained with them and their relatives, if they managed to emigrate in time. Whereas other real estate objects, as well as gold and jewelry transported from the royal treasury abroad, are now at the disposal of foreign states.
It is believed that under Peter the Great who opened the window to Europe, wealthy courtiers began to acquire real estate abroad. The countdown starts from the purchase by Count Sheremetev of a palace in the center of Paris. The count bought this magnificent palace from Madame Pompadour, who was the favorite of the French king. The Romanovs owned a Scottish island, donated to the royal family at the beginning of the 20th century by the British monarch, Sergei Witte had a dacha in Nice, which was awarded to the loyal minister personally by Nicholas II …
The fate of the gold reserve
About 500 tons of gold, which makes up the majority of the gold reserves of tsarist Russia, also remained abroad. At one time, the "whites" transported to Japan half of the gold reserves of the tsarist and provisional governments captured in Kazan (about 100 tons), so that the Japanese would send weapons and ammunition in return. However, neither the one nor the other the White Army did not wait. Subsequently, representatives of the white emigration for more than 10 years tried to legally stake out the legal right to this gold, but to no avail - they did not have official powers from the authorities of the Soviet Union, so the Japanese judges each time refused to satisfy these requirements.
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Do not give up now
Since the beginning of the 90s, the Russian authorities have been trying to prove their legal right to foreign gold and real estate previously owned by the tsarist dynasties. The international expert council has repeatedly made attempts to legitimize this process. But so far at the government level there is no single concept for its organization and implementation. Meanwhile, the Baltic states have a similar experience - in the 90s they managed to prove their right to foreign gold, and it was returned to them.
According to foreign experts, today Russia has the right to claim gold held in foreign banks with a total value of $ 100 billion. The value of "Russian" real estate abroad is estimated at three times the dollar equivalent of the gold reserve.
Nikolay Syromyatnikov