Kristalina Georgieva: the IMF boss tackling Covid, the climate crisis and, now, war

The attitudes of the first fund chief to come from a former communist country were shaped by her early life, but her focus is now on a greener post-Covid future

Anyone in charge of the International Monetary Fund would be concerned about what is happening in Ukraine, but Kristalina Georgieva has a personal reason for being anxious about events in eastern Europe. In London, two days before Vladimir Putin launched his invasion, the IMF's managing director tells the Observer she has a family connection to the north-eastern city of Kharkiv - an early target for Russian air strikes.

My brother married a Ukrainian and he and his wife went there to look after her mother," says the Bulgarian-born economist. They stayed because they didn't want to leave her in a time of uncertainty. I speak to him every day."