D.fter the announcement of sanctions against Russia following the invasion of Ukraine, Elvira Nabiullina spoke at a press conference: “The Russian Central Bank has today decided to raise the key rate to 20% per annum”. It was 9.5%. Analysts have caught in his face and in his clothing unequivocal signs not only of crisis for the country but also of disapproval of the war momentum. She was dressed in black, with a Steve Jobs turtleneck sweater, and no pins.
Elvira Nabiullina’s dress is not a detail
The usual painful attention to how a woman dresses rather than what she says? Far from it. She herself has repeatedly admitted, in the past, that what she wears has a symbolic meaning. It seems that Elvira Nabiullina has submitted her resignation twice in the last few weeks and that Putin has responded by renewing her post, which expires in June, for another five years. Her reply? A black sweater.
In short, she is a central woman in this very complicated moment, esteemed in the West (see the photo below in the company of Christine Lagarde) but also vital for Putin, crucial for the Kremlin’s gears of power. A woman who has a depth, beyond the role of a technocrat and, as she has shown, also a marked irony.
Christine Lagarde with Elvira Nabiullina (Photo by Lisa Maree Williams / Getty Images)
What the pins say
Over the past two years, Elvira Nabiullina has in fact worn several times ad hoc brooches, able to tell at a glance the state of the Russian economy and the actions of the Bank of Russia. “I’ve been wearing badges for a long time,” she told the RTVI station in December 2020. But right from 2020, she said, she started using them to send messages. “I’m not going to explain the meaning of each pin, but yes, each brooch has a meaning. I enjoy seeing the different interpretations of my pins. People have very vivid imaginations“.
From stork to hawk, passing through dolls and bullfinches
In February 2020 for example Nabiullina he wore one that represented a stork. Months ago, to a reporter who asked her if she felt more like a hawk or a dove, she had glossed over. Maybe I don’t look like any bird, she said. However at the February meeting, as she announced the interest rate cut, she chose to identify with a stork, to symbolize the idea of a new life for the Russian economy.
In March 2020, at a press conference announcing Central Bank measures to support the financial sector in the post-pandemic, Elvira Nabiullina presented herself with a brooch representing a typical Russian doll, the nevаlyashka. The peculiarity of this doll is that it has a round body that moves if you touch it. The right pin to wear as politicians tried to push the economy forward against the Covid-19 pandemic.
In May, he exhibited a pin with u insteadlittle white house on his jacket as the government urged people to stay home.
And in June he chose a pigeon – the Russian word also means dove – as he announced the interest rate cut.
In July 2020 he wore a pin with the letter V.: observers interpreted the choice as a hope for a rapid recovery of the economy, in the shape of … “v”.
On another occasion he wore a brooch of a bright red breasted bird, known in Russian as snegir (bullfinch in Italian), after policy makers held the rate stable for the third consecutive time as a second wave of Covid-19 delayed signs of recovery. Some social media commentators have seen the pin as a sign of a cold winter and an even colder winter to come.
“It’s a beautiful winter bird,” Nabiullina said. “It is a bird that can withstand various frosts. It is resistant “.
Between the storms, Covid and politics
In October 2020, Elvira Nabiullina became redundant a brooch with waves. According to observers, the reference was to the Coronavirus: another wave was looming on the horizon. According to others, the reference was instead to the geopolitical turmoil caused by the election of Joe Biden. She subsequently denied this hypothesis.
In March 2021, the central bank raised interest rates to bring down inflation. And she he wore a hawk brooch.
In December 2022, Nabiullina wore the brooch of a nutcracker at a press conference announcing interest rate hikes for the seventh time in a row. It was interpreted as an expression of the will to break once and for all the “nut” of inflation.
Looking forward to the next brooch
The last period is black for Russia and for the Central Bank of Moscow, black like Elvira Nabiullina’s black sweater. There is little to joke, this is clear. The hope is that it will soon show itself to the world with a pin full of meanings, if not bright, less gloomy.
Before her, Madeleine Albright
Nabiullina is not the first politician to use pins to give signals to her country. Madeleine Albright did it too, to the point that there was talk of a real “brooch diplomacy”. “Read my badges,” was a recurring line of him. The diplomatic pins of the former Madame Secretary were displayed in an exhibition (Read My Pins: The Madeleine Albright Collection) while she herself told them in a book, Read my pins: Stories from a Diplomat’s Jewel Boxpublished by HarperCollins.
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