According to the Wall Street Journal, today President Putin has nominated for a third term Elvira Nabiullina as chief of the Russian central bank:

“Ms. Nabiullina’s reappointment solidifies her role as one of Russia’s top economic generals, tasked with keeping the country’s financial system functioning and commerce flowing while fighting rages in Ukraine. Her current term is due to end in June. She is expected to speak later Friday.

“’The president has repeatedly praised the results of the work of Nabiullina and the central bank as a whole. And we see how logical it was to introduce her candidacy for another term,’ Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday.” https://www.wsj.com/articles/putin-taps-central-bank-chief-for-third-term-with-mandate-to-cushion-economy-from-sanctions-11647602129

This is an inexplicable decision! Nabiullina is the incompetent or traitor who was keeping Russia’s gold and foreign exchange reserves abroad where they were easily confiscated by the sanctioning countries.

Russia’s finance minister announced that Russia had lost half of its gold and foreign currency reserves to confiscation. We do know that Russia’s reserves were offshored, because Russia was able to use some of her frozen reserves to pay a European debt and avoid default. Russia was able to use her frozen reserves because it suited the interest of the Western banks whose self-interest prevailed over Washington’s sanctions.

As Pepe Escobar writes, “This is a powerful indictment of the Russian Central Bank – which was borrowing against gold and exporting it. For all practical purposes, the Central Bank could be accused of perpetrating an inside job.”

“It boggles the mind that the Russian Central Bank does not answer to the Russian constitution as well as to the judicial system, but in fact is subordinated to the IMF. A case can be made that this cartel-designed financial system – implying zero sovereignty – simply cannot be tackled head on by any nation on the planet, and Putin has been trying to undermine it step by step. That includes, of course, keeping Elvira Nabiullina on the job even as she duly follows the Washington consensus to the letter.” https://www.unz.com/pescobar/all-that-glitters-is-not-necessarily-russian-gold/ ( I assume Escobar is being facetious.)

It is beyond comprehension that Putin would reappoint, rather than arrest for high treason, a fool or traitor who gave away Russia’s foreign exchange reserves to Russia’s enemies, a Western alliance that Putin has said is committed to the annihilation of Russia.

Something is clearly bad wrong in the Kremlin when the Russian central bank is following IMF norms that serve the West at Russia’s expense. As Putin has finally acknowledged the reality of a Russian Fifth Column operating against Russia, he should investigate whether his central bank chief is part part of it.