Russia has slashed its investment in US government securities sharply, according to ministry data.

The agency calculated that in February Russia owned US government bonds of $5.756 billion, and in March this figure dropped to $3.976 billion. Meanwhile, the share of long-term securities tripled, from $306 million to $1.08 billion, while the volume of short-term bonds fell from $5.4 billion to $2.88 billion.

In recent years, Russia has not been one of the largest holders of the US government debt. If in 2010 the volume of investments reached a maximum of 170 billion, then since April 2018, under the threat of sanctions, Moscow has decided to get rid of American government bonds as much as possible. In February last year, their volume was equal to $12.58 billion, twice as much as at present.