Where is Central Bank of Russia (CBR) governor Elvia Nabiullina? The head of Russia’s central bank has not been seen in public for weeks.

A no show at Russia’s premier investment forum, the St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), where she is a major fixture on the agenda, initially it was reported that she skipped the event to attend the funeral of her aide Alexey Mozhin , but as she has failed to appear in the following week, now there are reports that she is on “sick leave.”

Nabiullina is central to Russia’s war efforts, having played a crucial role in the early days of the war, rapidly stabilising the shock of the war and then sanctions by immediately hiking interest rates by 1000bp as Russian tanks rolled over the border into Ukraine and slapping strict capital controls to prevent a run on the banks and collapse of the currency.

The Russian economy teetered on the edge of a meltdown in the first few months, but the exchange rapidly stabilised and the economy quickly began to boom as the torrent of state spending on defence spending started to fuel rapid economic growth.

Since then, Nabiullina has started to fight persistent inflation that began to rise in the second quarter of 2023 (chart) as the military Keynesianism boost wore off industrial production reached capacity, in addition to rising incomes, lifted by a chronic labour shortage. Nabiullina launched an unorthodox experiment last year, artificially slowing economic growth to pull down inflation as Russian President Vladimir Putin refused to curb military spending.

It worked, as inflation fell faster than expected, dropping from over 10% at the end of 2024 to 5.6% a year later, and is still falling. But that has come with increasing pain as companies, especially small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), complain about sky high borrowing costs, real incomes have started to fall, the economy has slowed and the budget deficit has swelled. Russia’s economy is suffering, but as IntelliNews reported, so are all the economies in Europe due to the strains of the war.

Nabiullina is skipping more public appearances and will not attend the National Association of Securities Market Participants (NAUFOR) conference on June 9, as she remains on sick leave, the Interfax reports.

"Elvira Sakhipzadovna will be unable to participate in the NAUFOR conference 'Russian Stock Market' on June 9, as she is still on sick leave," the Central Bank's press service told reporters.

Initially, this event with Nabiullina's participation was scheduled for May 19, but then "for reasons beyond the association's control" it was postponed to June 9.

Observers will be watching to see if she appears at a memorial service for Mozhin, advisor to the head of the Central Bank and former Russian representative to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), due to be held in Moscow on June 10.

Mozhin died on June 3 at the age of 69. He died less than three weeks before his 70th birthday. TASS reports that the cause of death was a "serious illness."

Mozhin served as Russia's Executive Director of the IMF from 1996 to 2024. In 2014, he became the dean (head of the diplomatic corps) of the IMF Board of Directors, the longest-serving member of the Fund's Executive Board. In 2024, he was appointed Advisor to the Governor of the Central Bank, replacing Ksenia Yudaeva.

Nabiullina took over as the governor of the central bank in 2013 and immediately launched a multi-year banking sector clean up that nearly caused a systemic meltdown in 2017, but ultimately was successful and left the sector much healthier than when she started in time for Putin’s invasion of Ukraine five years later. Nabiullina has been one of Russia’s most successful governors and has been dubbed “the most conservative central banker in the world.”