Who is the real Elvira Nabiullina?
A few weeks ago, I edited an edition of this newsletter that introduced you to Elvira Nabiullina, the head of Russia's central bank. During her tenure as Russia's top banker, Nabiullina has managed to charm the West — or its bankers, at least — and cultivated the image of a firmly professional technocrat who likes opera and has been blindsided by the war in Ukraine.
Nabiullina also appears to have bewitched much of the press, who love the idea that every time she appears in public she could be signaling her unspoken thoughts about the economy ... via her clothing choices. As we reported in our newsletter, on her first public appearance after the invasion of (For Russia? For Ukraine? For integrity in central banking?) And, like the late , Nabiullina likes to wear brooches that telegraph her opinions about the state of the economy. In other words, Nabiullina is one of the very few Russian officials to have retained the respect, if not admiration, of the West.
