Moscow’s Central Banker Dismantles What She Built https://www.wsj.com/articles/russia-central-banker-nabiullina-putin-ukraine-11649430535
Elvira Nabiullina spent eight years modernizing Russian monetary policy and forging bonds with global markets. In the past six weeks, she took apart much of what she created for a new task: keeping President Vladimir Putin’s war economy humming.
Ms. Nabiullina, governor of the Russian Central Bank, is among the key players in Moscow’s efforts to prevent Western sanctions over the Ukraine invasion from causing an economic meltdown. An ally of Mr. Putin for two decades, she is the primary official responsible for stabilizing the ruble and combating inflation—tasks the Kremlin sees as essential in shielding Russia’s population from the fallout of sanctions.
She has succeeded, to some extent. A flurry of emergency measures Ms. Nabiullina enacted since the invasion helped reverse a sharp devaluation of the ruble, which is roughly back to its prewar level in dollar terms. She was able to dial back an earlier emergency interest-rate hike on Friday, lowering a key rate to 17% from 20% in a sign savers were no longer pulling cash from the banking system. But economists say the ruble’s recovery was a hollow victory, as it is now subject to myriad restrictions that limit its usefulness for many transactions.
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