• Russian president said to reject Nabiullina’s bid to resign

• Respected central banker faces legacy at risk as sanctions hit

Russia’s highly regarded central bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina sought to resign after Vladimir Putin ordered an invasion of Ukraine, only to be told by the president to stay, according to four people with knowledge of the discussions.

Nominated for a new five-year term last week, Nabiullina’s current views couldn’t be learned. She is left to manage the fallout from a war that’s quickly undone much of what’s she’s accomplished in the nine years since she took office. The people said departure now would be seen as a betrayal by the president, with whom she has worked closely for nearly two decades.

Nabiullina, 58, hasn’t commented publicly on her reappointment and didn’t respond to a query for this article. The central bank’s press service didn’t respond to a request for comment for this article. After it was published, the press service told Tass that it “doesn’t correspond to reality,” providing no further details. A Kremlin spokesman didn’t reply to a request for comment. Only one senior official has quit over the war: longtime economic reformer Anatoly Chubais stepped down as Putin’s climate envoy this week and left the country, according to people familiar with the situation.

Nabiullina, favored by investors and hailed by publications including Euromoney and The Banker as one of the world’s best monetary policymakers, now faces a wartime economy isolated by international sanctions and starved for investment as foreign companies leave.

With the ruble plunging as the U.S. and its allies imposed sweeping sanctions -- including on the central bank itself -- in the wake of the Feb. 24 invasion, she more than doubled the key interest rate and imposed capital controls to stanch the outflow of cash.

The central bank said it gave up interventions to defend the ruble after international restrictions froze more than half of its $643 billion in reserves.

“So long as there’s an escalation, the central bank can only adapt to shocks,” said Oleg Vyugin, a former top Bank of Russia official who’s known Nabiullina for over 20 years.


Hopelessness

Connect the dots on the biggest economic issues.

Some central bank officials describe a state of hopelessness in the weeks since the invasion, feeling trapped in an institution that they fear will have little use for their market-oriented skills and experience as Russia is cut off from the world. At one point, the pace of departures was intense enough that the IT department was short of hands to terminate accounts. Arrows plastered along passageways steered employees through the final bureaucracy on their way out.

Other departments hunkered down under a heavier work load than usual and even saw a barrage of resumes arrive from banks targeted by sanctions.

Before the invasion, officials modeled scenarios that included a possible cut-off from the SWIFT financial messaging service but considered the possibility of sanctions on the central bank’s reserves too extreme to be anything but hypothetical, people familiar with the situation said.

Putin said earlier this month he’s confident Russia will overcome the current economic difficulties and emerge more independent. Comparing the current wave of restrictions to those imposed on the U.S.S.R. during the Cold War, he said, “the Soviet Union lived under sanctions, developed and attained colossal successes.”

In a brief statement last Friday after deciding to keep rates near a two-decade high of 20%, Nabiullina put off achieving her 4% inflation target until 2024 and warned the economy is headed for contraction and upheaval with no clear end in sight. In a break with recent tradition, she didn’t take questions after the rate meeting.

Economists predict a double-digit drop in output this year, while the ruble’s collapse and shortages of goods may touch off inflation of as much as 25%, a level not seen in Russia since the government’s 1998 debt default.

The ruble's value has plunged over Nabiullina's years as central banker

In a short video to the central bank’s staff on March 2, Nabiullina hinted at the upheaval inside, pleading to avoid “political debates” that “only burn our energy, which we need to do our job.” Describing an economic situation she called “extreme,” the governor said “all of us would have wanted for this not to happen.”

Until now, the crisis that followed Putin’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 was the biggest test of Nabiullina’s free-market mettle.

She fought against capital controls -- advice that was then heeded by Putin -- and set the ruble free, shifting to inflation targeting earlier than planned.


Frozen Reserves

Under her stewardship, the central bank amassed one of the world’s biggest stockpiles of foreign currency and gold, cracked down on lenders deemed mismanaged or under-capitalized, and brought inflation to the lowest in Russia’s post-Soviet history.

“When Nabiullina came in, no one thought she’d be able to stabilize inflation,” recalls Natalia Orlova, economist at Alfa-Bank. “She brought the central bank up to absolutely international standards.”

European Central Bank chief Christine Lagarde, a fellow opera-lover then in charge of the International Monetary Fund, in 2018 likened her qualities to those of a great conductor.

Foreign investors poured billions into Russian debt. Putin trusted her, listened to her opinion and defended her tight-money policies in front of other government officials. But much of her legacy came undone in a matter of hours after the sanctions laid siege to Russia’s economy.

The path forward is less obvious than in crises past. An emergency rate hike and restrictions on foreign-exchange transactions have for now bottled up problems in the banking industry, with Russian markets seeing only a piecemeal reopening. The threat of default is stalking the government and companies.

“There’s no hope for the central bank to return to its old policies,” said Sergei Guriev, professor of economics at Sciences Po Paris.

Guriev, who fled to Paris in 2013 and served as chief economist at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, has known Nabiullina for about 15 years.

“She didn’t sign up to work in wartime,” he said. “She’s not the kind of person who can work with financial markets shut off and catastrophic sanctions.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-23/russia-central-banker-wanted-out-over-ukraine-but-putin-said-no

Just the beginning

Nebulana abi na Nebulus better find a way of escaping earlier. What ll befall Putin ll be worst than what other aggressors v seen.
If Putin doesn't go down before July make I baff naked for bathroom

dre11:

• Russian president said to reject Nabiullina’s bid to resign

• Respected central banker faces legacy at risk as sanctions hit





https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-23/russia-central-banker-wanted-out-over-ukraine-but-putin-said-no

Lalasticlala

So you guys don't have any propaganda to present us again, it's now this...

I pity Ukraine for thinking the west can face Russia on it behalf.

Propaganda don't win war, it'll only make such countries appear foolish later.

Meanwhile Ukraine has killed 100,000 Russian soldiers, destroyed thousands of ammunitions. We're winning on Twitter, CNN, BBC, nairaland...

God bless Putin and mother Russia.

Like Buhari like Putin

This is a war of Ego and election that backfired.

Putin do not care because his citizens cannot even protest freely


In other news,

Once you see anyone ranting western propaganda like the one above me, they lack sense of comprehension

They will accept it if CNN posts that Russia is coming out stronger

vladimir putin's will surely fail woefully on his bad and negatives plans for all over the world just because of his hatred for United States of America, and America nahhh your great grandfathers almost on everything's


United States of America, Nato and the west countries are definitely coming for you Vladimir Putin's just watch and see

I just pity those people supporting Vladimir Putin senselessly invasion of a sovereignty country, even to the extent of some people telling Ukraine's president to surrender his own nation to the aggressors, just imagine that, so assuming Cameroon invade Nigeria tomorrow and you are expecting Nigeria to surrender to Cameroon please in the name of what please it sound even stupid to hear

Putin is a coward , a sour loser.

Majority of Russian bigwigs are not in support of this coward. The only people hovering around Putin are Nairalanders terrorist apologists. Imagine the people supporting Vladimir Putin? Seriously Putin is a joke if it's only nairalanders terrorist that are licking his ass

All those nairalanders should mobilize themselves and fly to Russia and help their demigod conquer Ukraine

They justifies Putin Cowardliness by saying that it won't take Putin a second to level down Ukraine to smithereens, that the overrated Russia have so many nuclear weapons, still this same Russia is soliciting for china's help


Russia has loose it all. It was better for them to be like that and receive all the respect that was accorded to them. For them to engaged small Ukraine and still cannot do jack has really exposed their weakness.

They were threatening Ukraine thinking that Ukraine will surrender immediately, not knowing that Zelensky is more stronger than the coward Putin.


Russia is one of the weakest country on earth with no military might.

This is where loyalty is tested at it's highest level.
Resign go where . When it was sweet and sugary you stayed now e don turn alomo bitters you wan japa!! Your fada

bloomberg propaganda carried by black monkeys in a 5th world nation for their slave masters .
SHAME ON THE BLACK RACE

dre11:
• Russian president said to reject Nabiullina’s bid to resign

• Respected central banker faces legacy at risk as sanctions hit



https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-23/russia-central-banker-wanted-out-over-ukraine-but-putin-said-no

President Putin is graduly isolating himself with his stubbornness in this Ukrainian war pursuit.

I'm sure Putin rejected the resignation the way a Putin would.
No one will be allowed to quit.

Everyone must sink together

Madman Putin's days are numbered.

Let's discuss more on our own country, because the only different BTW Ukraine and Nigeria is that the bombing in Ukraine are physical while in Nigeria the people are being subject to poverty by this Evil government .

Russia will eventually collapse

No nation is an island

This is just the beginning... No peace for the wicked, e no go better for Buhari and he's supporters too!!

Oh no, things fall apart

Botlord:

So you guys don't have any propaganda to present us again, it's now this...

I pity Ukraine for thinking the west can face Russia on it behalf.

Propaganda don't win war, it'll only make such countries appear foolish later.

Meanwhile Ukraine has killed 100,000 Russian soldiers, destroyed thousands of ammunitions. We're winning on Twitter, CNN, BBC, nairaland...

God bless Putin and mother Russia.

It's like you have so much delight in the Bloodshedding.

Keep it up, E-soldier.

dre11:
• Russian president said to reject Nabiullina’s bid to resign

• Respected central banker faces legacy at risk as sanctions hit



https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-23/russia-central-banker-wanted-out-over-ukraine-but-putin-said-no

"LOL, Only people with non functional brains would believe this propaganda from the Western media, So the reporter flew down to Russia to hear the convo between Putin and his central banker then flew back to inform BLOOMBERG...idiots". Village People Spokesperson.

Fireman66:
Russia this, Russia that

We're suffering in Nigeria abeg

No mind Nairaland, Nigerians are committing suicide and dying of hunger but them no see that one under their nose

Do you know that some people in Nigeria will believe this propaganda?

Thats how daft an average Nigerian is.

"someone wants to resign and Putin said No" instead of us to see court cases, we are seeing news from bloomberg. Lol

Well what do you expect from people that believe that Russia is a Muslim country. One was even arguing that Russia is a feudal state. Many people in Nigeria believe that Putin succeeded somebody as "head of state" not "president" without any election, hence Russia is not a democratic state.

Bunch of Ignoramuses/ignorami (if you are in the category, pick the one that suits you. Both are correct)

Botlord:

So you guys don't have any propaganda to present us again, it's now this...

I pity Ukraine for thinking the west can face Russia on it behalf.

Propaganda don't win war, it'll only make such countries appear foolish later.

Meanwhile Ukraine has killed 100,000 Russian soldiers, destroyed thousands of ammunitions. We're winning on Twitter, CNN, BBC, nairaland...

God bless Putin and mother Russia.

For your mind now, you don type sense

Ukraine is an independent country, what's Russian's business with the decision their president made

If their decision no pay you, boycott nah, you come go dey fight like small brat

You self come dey yarn like small pikin

Padipadi:
Nebulana abi na Nebulus better find a way of escaping earlier. What ll befall Putin ll be worst than what other aggressors v seen.
If Putin doesn't go down before July make I baff naked for bathroom

Before you dey wear clothes bath for bathroom?

Stop feeding us garbage

Fireman66:
Russia this, Russia that

We're suffering in Nigeria abeg

We are not suffering. Buhari and APC have changed Nigeria for good. No more hunger, poverty, kidnapping, Boko Haram, strike, fuel scarcity, etc.

You people should stop saying we're suffering. No single Nigerian is suffering. We are enjoying now, unlike 8 years ago.

CNN and BBC said Buhari have decided to be Christian and that he is tired of praying 5 times a day.... There I fixed it for you!

dre11:
• Russian president said to reject Nabiullina’s bid to resign

• Respected central banker faces legacy at risk as sanctions hit



https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-23/russia-central-banker-wanted-out-over-ukraine-but-putin-said-no

[s]

Botlord:

So you guys don't have any propaganda to present us again, it's now this...

I pity Ukraine for thinking the west can face Russia on it behalf.

Propaganda don't win war, it'll only make such countries appear foolish later.

Meanwhile Ukraine has killed 100,000 Russian soldiers, destroyed thousands of ammunitions. We're winning on Twitter, CNN, BBC, nairaland...

God bless Putin and mother Russia.

[/s]

Hey tell us the truth have you eaten this morning? We all know you are starving and have multiple accounts for begging on this forum.. so tell us have you eaten this morning?