Torshin will be responsible for issues of interaction between the Central Bank and parliament and the government. This is the second appointment in a week at the Bank of Russia: on January 21, Ksenia Yudaeva will transfer monetary policy issues to Dmitry Tulin. Both Tulin and Torshin already worked at the Central Bank

Senator Alexander Torshin (Photo: TASS)

Senator Alexander Torshin has been appointed Secretary of State - Deputy Chairman of the Bank of Russia, he will be responsible for issues of interaction with the chambers of the Federal Assembly, executive bodies of government at the federal and regional levels, the press service of the Central Bank reports .

“By order of the Chairman of the Bank of Russia, Alexander Porfirievich Torshin was appointed State Secretary - Deputy Chairman of the Bank of Russia from January 21, 2015,” the regulator said in a statement.

Torshin has not yet written a statement on the resignation of the senator, Vadim Tyulpanov, chairman of the rules committee in the upper house of parliament, told RBC. He admitted that he learned about Torshin’s appointment from the press. A RBC source in the Federation Council close to Torshin confirmed that the senator himself knew in advance about the upcoming appointment.

“The current Central Bank team had poor communication with the market, and even with parliament. The Central Bank's messages did not reach market participants and were not clear to them. During difficult periods of fluctuations in the foreign exchange market, the Central Bank’s comments were one-sided, which did not explain the regulator’s further guidelines to the market. Apparently, Torshin was invited to solve this problem, to establish communications between the Central Bank and the market,” says Oleg Ivanov, vice-president of the Association of Regional Banks “Russia”.

According to him, Torshin has been doing this quite successfully throughout his career. In 1995–1998, he already worked at the Bank of Russia, also as State Secretary for the then head of the Central Bank, Sergei Dubinin. At previous places of work, according to Oleg Ivanov, such as at ARCO and the Federation Council, he also established relationships with market participants. In particular, in the Federation Council he communicated the position of the federal government to the subjects, Ivanov noted.

In 1995–1998, Torshin served as State Secretary - Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank and was responsible for interaction with government bodies, public organizations and the press.

In 2001, Torshin became a representative in the Federation Council from the government of Mari El, and in January 2002 he was elected deputy chairman of the upper house of parliament. In September 2008, he became the first vice-speaker. From May to September 2011, he served as Chairman of the Federation Council.

This is the second appointment to the Central Bank in the last week. On January 16, the Bank of Russia officially announced the appointment of Dmitry Tulin as First Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank. From January 21, 2015, he will be responsible for monetary policy issues. Ksenia Yudaeva, who was in charge of these issues, will retain the post of first deputy head of the Central Bank; she will deal with forecasting, strategy and issues of financial stability.

Personnel changes at the Central Bank occurred against the backdrop of a sharp fall in the ruble. According to RBC sources, the decision to remove part of the powers from Ksenia Yudaeva was made in the presidential administration, but the Kremlin did not choose a candidate for the position of those responsible for monetary policy, giving this right to the Bank of Russia. The Bank of Russia coordinated the candidacies of potential monetary policy curators with presidential aide Andrei Belousov.

Presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov denied information that the decision to reshuffle the Central Bank was made in the Kremlin. “The presidential administration does not deal with personnel issues within the Central Bank; the decision was made by its leadership,” he said.

Senator Torshin appointed deputy chairman of the Central Bank