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Among main candidates for the Central Bank’s head – presidential aide Elvira Nabiullina

This position was also offered to former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, but he refused

MOSCOW, March 11 (Itar-Tass) – Among main candidates for the position of the Central Bank’s head is former Minister of Economic Development, present presidential aide Elvira Nabiullina.

“This position was also offered to former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, but he refused. Most likely, it will be Nabiullina, at least during the latest discussion at the government, her candidature was the main one,” the Izvestia newspaper writes referring to a high-ranking source at the Finance Ministry.

Earlier, the media forecasted for the position the Central Bank’s Deputy Head Alexei Ulukaev, Head of VTB-24 Mikhail Zadornov, VTB’s CEO Andrei Kostin, Vnesheconombank’s CEO Vladimir Dmitriyev, former head of the Federal Service for Security Markets Oleg Vyugin, and presidential aide Sergei Glazyev.

As yet, the Kremlin is not giving comments on the list. Earlier, the Kremlin said a candidature was not clear. “Surely, the candidature would not be presidential aide Sergei Glazyev,” a source in the Kremlin said then.

The president, who is to present to the State Duma a candidature for the Central Bank’s head, promised on March 7 that the Central Bank’s news head would be an “unexpected person.”

“An unexpected figure, you will like,” Putin said in Vologda while responding to reporters.

The four-year term of the current Chairman of the Central Bank Sergei Ignatyev, who took the office on June 24, 2009, expires next summer. Earlier, Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said the government was not discussing any changes to the law on the central bank in order to extend Ignatyev’s term.

On the basis of the Central Bank the government plans to establish a financial mega regulator by merging it with the Federal Service for Security Markets.

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