Russia’s holdings of US state debt is 25 times smaller than that of tiny Luxembourg

Russia's holdings of US securities as of September stood at $10.75 billion, recent data from the US Treasury Department shows. Moscow's total is just a fraction of what small states, like the Cayman Islands and Luxemburg, hold.

Once a top investor in US debt, Russia has dramatically reduced its holdings in recent years as part of an effort to cut reliance on the US dollar in response to sanctions imposed by Washington.

America’s largest foreign creditor, Japan, reduced its holdings by almost $30 billion in September to $1.1458 trillion.

China has also been cutting its holdings of US debt in previous months and even lost its crown of top foreign holder of US Treasury notes in June, for the first time in two years. As of September, Beijing had $1.102 trillion, slightly less than a month earlier.

The last of the top five foreign holders of US debt is Luxembourg, with $252.5 billion worth of US Treasury Bills. This is more than 25 times more than Russia. Moscow's share of US debt is also far smaller than the Cayman Islands'. One of the world’s most popular offshores holds $238 billion in US Treasury securities.

Moscow has been reducing its investment in US state debt in order to diversify the country's reserves, according to the Central Bank of Russia. The Russian central bank has also been dumping its dollar holdings and boosting the share of gold, yuan and euro on its foreign exchange reserves.

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