The value of Russia's gold and foreign currency holdings has risen by almost $9 billion in a week. This means it's sitting on $600 billion in forex reserves - an all-time record beating August 2008's previous high of $598 billion. That was just before the global financial crisis, or 'Great Recession', which wreaked havoc worldwide towards the end of the 2000s. Back then, the slush fund started to dwindle rapidly, due to the economic crisis, and lost over $100 billion in value in the following three months.