(Reuters) – The Russian central bank will hold a policy meeting on Friday as sanctions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine leave the country increasingly isolated and devastate its economy.
Below are five facts about Russia’s central bank governor Elvira Nabiullina:
-An economics graduate of Moscow State University, Nabiullina became the first woman to run a central bank from the G8 grouping of rich countries when she took the reins in 2013 after serving as President Vladimir Putin’s advisor and following a stint as economy and trade minister.
-Highly respected, including by many in the West, Nabiullina is credited with modernising the central bank and making it into an institution foreign investors trusted to steer the economy through tough times, including Western sanctions in 2014.
-Following Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, she helped build a $640 billion warchest of gold and foreign exchange reserves and oversaw a reduction in the share of reserves held in dollars.
-An ethnic Tatar and a rare female in the top echelons of Russian officialdom, Nabiullina earned Putin’s trust. Known as a policy hawk, in a December interview with Reuters she said high inflation could undermine the central bank’s credibility.
-Nabiullina is famed for sending coded messages with her choice of clothing and brooches. In a Feb. 28 news conference following coordinated Western sanctions, the 58-year old cut a lonely figure dressed in black.
(Reporting by Reuters)