Did Vladimir Putin “disappear” the head of Russia’s central bank?
That’s the conspiracy theory. And while it sounds crazy, Elvira Nabiullina’s recent absence from major public events is unusual enough to examine.
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Nabiullina is the Governor of the Bank of Russia — basically Russia’s equivalent of the Federal Reserve Chair. She is one of the most important economic officials in the country, and arguably one of the main reasons Russia’s economy has not completely collapsed under sanctions, war spending, and inflation pressure.
But she reportedly has not been seen publicly since a May 2026 state visit to Kazakhstan. She also missed the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, one of Russia’s biggest annual political and economic events.
The official explanation is that she was sick. Another report connected her absence to the death of her adviser, Alexei Mozhin. But in Russia, when someone powerful suddenly disappears from public view, people start asking questions.
In this video, I look at the theory that Putin may want lower interest rates to keep Russia’s war economy moving, why Nabiullina may be resisting that, how inflation affects recruitment, and whether Russia’s central banker is being sidelined, scapegoated, or simply done with the job.
This is not proof of a disappearance. It is an intelligence-style look at what we know, what we don’t know, and what the competing explanations might be.
