Europe
Russia’s sanctioned IMF director set to move to Washington
Bloomberg
January 22, 2025
Ksenia Yudaeva, first deputy governor of Russia’s central bank, gestures while speaking during the Emerging + Frontier Forum 2019 at Bloomberg’s European headquarters in London, U.K., on Tuesday, June 25, 2019. (Luke MacGregor/Bloomberg)
Russia’s representative to the International Monetary Fund’s executive board has received permission by Washington to move to the US, a reprieve from sanctions imposed in response to the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Ksenia Yudaeva, who for a decade was first deputy governor at Russia’s central bank, was nominated as an IMF executive director in September. She will soon depart for the US capital after the Treasury Department cleared the move, according to three people close to the Russian government who asked not to be identified as the information isn’t public.
The US sanctioned Yudaeva in April 2022, two months after the start of the Kremlin’s war against Ukraine. The decision to allow her to live and work in Washington was made during Joe Biden’s presidency, two of the three people said.
Representatives of the IMF and the Russian government didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. The US Treasury said that it doesn’t comment on specific licenses.
The appointment of Yudaeva, who took up her role in November, coincided with a rocky attempt by the fund to re-engage with Russia. After deciding in September to restart its annual economic reviews of the Russian economy - as it does for all its roughly 190 members - the fund reversed course amid criticism by several Ukraine allies.
Yudaeva ended her stint as first deputy governor at the central bank in August 2023, but remained as an adviser to Governor Elvira Nabiullina until the end of last October.
The holder of a doctorate in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Yudaeva was Nabiullina’s main ally in moving the Russian ruble to a free float in 2014. The central bank was effusive in its praise upon her departure last year, saying that financial stability had been maintained during various crises largely due to her efforts.
The IMF executive board is currently comprised of 25 directors elected by member countries or groups of countries, though the distribution of votes is at least in part determined by a nation’s share of funding it provides.
Russia’s previous executive director at the IMF was Aleksei Mozhin, who had served continuously since the 1990s.