In 1920–1922 Estonia had stronger relations with Soviet Russia than other European countries. The Russian embassy in Tallinn was at the center of Russian gold sale to the West, which constituted about 4% of global gold sales in that period. Estonia and the Bank of Estonia received about 2/3 of the at least 30 million gold rubles transaction fees. The transactions were kept in secret and mostly only the Director of the Bank of Estonia in 1920–1921 and Minister of Finance in 1921–1922, Georg Westel, and the State Elder in 1921–1922, Konstantin Päts, knew of these transactions.