On July 8, 2025, the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation declared the prestigious American university an “undesirable” organization. Soon after this, information spread on social networks that the chairman of the Russian Central Bank studied there. We have verified the accuracy of such publications.
Russian legislation implies that the cooperation of citizens of the country with an organization declared "unwanted», is prohibited and may result in penalties including imprisonment. Moreover definition cooperation in the Criminal Code is given as vaguely as possible, and in some cases the law may have retroactive effect. “The head of the Central Bank Nabiullina turned out to be a criminal. This became clear after Yale was recognized as an undesirable organization. Nabiullina studied at Yale University and is listed among the graduates of 2007,” the Telegram channel wrote on July 8.CTD"(74,000 views at the time of writing this analysis). Similar posts appeared in other channels, including “Banks, money, two offshores"(106,000 views), "The Economist"(105,000), "Banksta"(85,000), "City of Foolov"(82,000), etc.
Motivating its decision to declare Yale University an “undesirable” organization, the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation noted: “On the basis of the university there is a School of International Relations, in which, under a scholarship program, students are trained for global leadership, and in fact, opposition leaders of foreign countries are trained. Among the Russian graduates of the program are leaders and activists of the extremist organization “Foundation for the Fight against Corruption”, who used the knowledge and technologies acquired at school to escalate protest activity in the Russian Federation.”
Apparently, the department is referring to the Yale World Fellows program. About its launch it was announced in 2001. “We hope that a large number of influential people around the world will be associated with Yale,” explained The goal of the program is university rector Richard Levin. The first release took place in 2002.
Every year, people who are involved in government, business, media or public projects and are “in the early or mid-stage” of their careers are selected to participate in the program on a competitive basis. Training lasts four months - from mid-August to mid-December. Selected candidates participate in weekly seminars, including with invited experts, perform with reports, can take any classes at Yale University, develop their own projects, exchange experiences with colleagues, receive advice from teachers and become mentors for students. All this time, program participants must remain at Yale University - they provided scholarship and free housing for the entire duration of study.
According to the program’s website, it has been completed in a quarter of a century six Russians. The most famous of them is politician and founder of the Anti-Corruption Foundation Alexei Navalny. Also participating in Yale World Fellows were his comrades Leonid Volkov and Anna Biryukova. Elvira Nabiullina is not in the alumni database.
Nevertheless, Nabiullina actually entered this program in May 2007 included in the number 18 people who passed the training competition. Her brief biography in the university press release stated: “Nabiullina is involved in issues of structural and economic reforms in Russia at the highest level. She led policy development during Russia's G8 Presidency in 2006 and previously served as First Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade." However, in the list program participants, which was published after the start of classes, and also in the list graduates of 2007 Nabiullina is no longer there.
September 24, 2007 Russian President Vladimir Putin announced composition of the new government. The Ministry of Economic Development was headed by Nabiullina, who by this time should already be in the American city of New Haven, where the Yale University campus is located. Apparently, when the possibility of this appointment was discussed with her, the official decided to refuse to participate in the Yale World Fellows - combining a ministerial position with a four-month departure was hardly possible. Transfer your studies to another year like this did selected for the program simultaneously with Nabiullina, Ukrainian MP Andrei Shevchenko, she also could not - the post of minister in one of the largest economies in the world could no longer be called an early or middle stage of a career.
In 2017, Nabiullina (by that time already the chairman of the Central Bank) met with Yale University MBA students who came to Russia. No other relationship with Yale after refusing to participate in Yale World Fellows is recorded in her biography.
Thus, Elvira Nabiullina actually applied for participation in the Yale World Fellows program and successfully passed the selection, but did not go to study - apparently, because of her appointment as Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation.
Cover photo: Central Bank of the Russian Federation
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