President Vladimir Putin promised that the candidacy of the new chairman of the Bank of Russia will be a surprise for everyone. "It will be unexpected, you will like it," the head of state said, answering questions from journalists in Vologda. He made it clear that he had made his choice. But Putin did not say who would take this post. It was also impossible to get comments from the press service of his administration.

The term of the current Central Bank Chairman Sergei Ignatyev expires on June 24. Ignatyev is in office for the third four-year term, the maximum allowed by law. The Law on the Central Bank stipulates that the President submits a candidate for appointment to the post of Chairman of the Central Bank no later than three months before the expiration of the term of the current head of the Central Bank. The candidate is approved by the State Duma by a majority vote. Thus, the President's proposal must be submitted to the State Duma no later than March 24.

All three times Ignatiev was appointed, the president submitted his candidacy ahead of schedule.

This time, the press, various experts and sources have been naming candidates for the post of head of the Central Bank for several months. Among them are former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, First Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank Alexei Ulyukayev and Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank Sergey Shvetsov, Chairman of the Board of Directors of MDM Bank Oleg Vyugin, Presidents of Sberbank German Gref, VTB Andrey Kostin and VTB 24 Mikhail Zadornov, and Presidential Advisor Sergey Glazyev.

"I dreamed that [presidential aide Elvira] Nabiullina would become the head of the Central Bank," former Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Savatyugin wrote on his Facebook page. This is not a dream; her candidacy was also considered, several other financiers claim. As was the candidacy of the Chairman of the National Bank of Kazakhstan Grigory Marchenko, previously supported by Russia when nominated for the post of head of the International Monetary Fund. Two financial lobbyists heard about this. But these conversations were a long time ago, about two years ago, one of them says. It was not possible to contact Nabiullina and Marchenko yesterday evening.

Putin has chosen the Chairman of the Central Bank