The Bank of Russia has a controller

The Kremlin and the White House appointed their representatives to the National Banking Council

The president and government named their representatives on the National Banking Council (NBC), a collegial body of the Bank of Russia that controls its expenses, reporting and auditing. Vladimir Putin will be represented at the NBS by economic adviser Andrei Illarionov, first deputy head of the presidential administration Dmitry Medvedev and head of the administration's economic department Anton Danilov-Danilyan. Mikhail Kasyanov, as expected, sent Minister of Economic Development German Gref, Minister of Finance Alexei Kudrin and his first deputy Alexei Ulyukaev to the council. At the same time, State Duma deputies decided on their representatives. Candidates from the Federation Council have been known for a long time, and thus the NBS will be able to begin work in November.

According to the new version of the law on the Bank of Russia, the only member of the board from the Central Bank itself is its chairman (the adoption of this norm, we recall, was actively resisted by Viktor Gerashchenko; if he had been more compliant, he might have been a member of the NBS even now). The remaining 11 seats are filled by the Kremlin, the government, the State Duma (three representatives each) and the Federation Council (two seats). The deadlines for filling quotas are not specified in the law, but before December 15 of this year, the NBS must make its first fundamental decision - to approve the Central Bank's expenses for the maintenance of its employees, the bank's capital investments and other administrative and business expenses. However, until the last moment neither the White House nor the State Duma were in a hurry to appoint their representatives. The parliament, according to the deputy chairman of the banking committee, Vladimir Tarachev, “was waiting for the decisions of the president and the government,” but what they were waiting for is not known exactly.

Last week, as Mr. Tarachev told the Vremya Novostey newspaper, the centrist factions agreed on their list of representatives: from Unity the deputy chairman of the budget committee Vladislav Reznik will join the council, from OVR - deputy chairman of the banking committee Pavel Medvedev, and from group "People's Deputy" - Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Economic Policy Anatoly Aksakov. They are expected to be approved by the Duma Council on Wednesday, after which the entire Duma will make its decision at a plenary session. As for the Federation Council, according to Vladimir Tarachev, the senators will most likely leave the chairman of the finance committee Sergei Vasiliev and his deputy Gleb Fetisov on the council.

Yuri VERETENNIKOV