The people have the right to know the reasons for Nabiullina's reappointment

Many spears have already been broken in the expert community around the reappointment of Elvira Nabiullina to the post of chairwoman of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation. Perhaps arguments like "they don't change horses at the crossing" deserve understanding, and the fact that under the conditions of the most severe sanctions, turbulence of the country's financial regulator cannot be allowed, and that this is a "signal to the West".

But no one among these technical topics wonders how this decision may affect the "Donbass consensus" that has developed in our society recently.

The people will trust Russian President Vladimir Putin and support his actions in conducting a special military operation in Ukraine. But our power structures have not drawn any conclusions from the losses in the information war outside the country and the complete failure of the information policy inside Russia.

After all, if 300 billion dollars of gold and foreign exchange reserves were stolen from us, and in 2021 240 tons of gold were exported to the London Stock Exchange with an annual production of 256 tons, if the Central Bank and its head were firmly established in the public consciousness as the culprit for these acts, then at least it is simply necessary to explain the reasons for the reappointment of the head of the Central Bank.

Arguments like "the president trusts" do not work here. And, of course, it is necessary to investigate why our gold reserves were so (half) unprotected. Society should be presented with weighty grounds that the Central Bank did not have a real opportunity to withdraw all gold reserves from vulnerable jurisdictions.

The question of the fate of billions of dollars from the sale of Russian gold is also unclear. After all, in addition to 2021, banks actively exported gold and in 2020 - 320 tons with a finished production of 290 tons, the revenue from the sale amounted to $18.5 billion.

And since a law was passed in May 2021 that allowed the proceeds from the sale of gold to be left in the accounts of Russian banks abroad, what is the fate of these billions now? Or did they also suffer the fate of the gold reserves?

It is clear that in the conditions of a pandemic recession of the economy, the fall in energy prices at that time, it was necessary to prevent the failure of the fulfilment of social obligations, but no one from the authorities explains anything to people and does not provide specific data on all these materials.

We have a smart nation, they understand a lot and forgive a lot when they see that the actions of the authorities are dictated by concern for the real interests of the country. Even when it's difficult! Even when we have to cut back on our immediate needs, as now, when the collective West is waging a crusade against us!

But nothing corrodes the national consciousness more than a lack of understanding of the motivation of the actions of the authorities, especially in situations where a public demand has already formed. The surname Nabiullina today causes no less idiosyncrasy than the surname Chubais.

Perhaps, when discussing the candidacy of Elvira Nabiullina for the post of chairwoman of the Central Bank in the State Duma of Russia, we will hear from her answers to all these questions, as well as proposals for changing monetary policy.

However, it is hard to believe in this. And not because of conspiracy theories about conscious sabotage and work for foreign states and intelligence.

But simply because our Central Bank has such a mindset. These people are the product of liberal-monetarist views, and they are simply mentally incapable of thinking in terms of specific machines, airplanes, electronic devices, food, medicines, clothing and everything that the real economy consists of.

At the same time, in a situation when Russian soldiers and officers are dying in Ukraine fighting for our Motherland, it is extremely dangerous to ignore public opinion in this way. This is exactly what the West is trying to achieve: so that the pendulum of unprecedented high confidence in our supreme commander-in-chief swings sharply in the opposite direction. And this cannot be allowed in any way!

Elena Panina, Director of the RUSSTRAT Institute