Russia's finance minister Alexei Kudrin has sought to reassure both investors and citizens that the economy would survive the global financial turmoil, thanks to ample gold and currency reserves.

"Today, we have laid a solid foundation for a stable macroeconomy and a stable rate for the national currency. This is the main constitutional obligation of the Central Bank."

Kudrin said that despite a plunge in stock markets, oil revenues and the ruble, Russia's vast reserves will minimize the impact of the global financial crisis.

The Central Bank's chief Sergei Ignatyev said it had spent over 57 billion US dollars from its foreign currency reserves in September and October to back the declining ruble during the financial crisis.

Ignatyev added Russia cut its investments in bonds of embattled US mortgage firms Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac over the two months, from some 65 billion dollars to around 21 billion dollars by early this month.

Russian officials revealed in July that Russia held 100 billion US dollars in US agency debt, a proportion of which is held in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

They reassured that, unlike the share price for the agencies, their debt remained stable.