OREANDA-NEWS. January 21, 2009. The Audit Chamber of the Russian Federation has launched a probe into activities of the Bank of Russia in order to assess the efficiency of management of international currency reserves, a source at CBR said. The source noted that the audit began at the end of December and, according to the schedule of the Audit Chamber, will last three months. In June 2008, the chairman of the Audit Chamber Sergey Stepashin said that the chamber would obtain permission from the National Banking Council and launch an audit of the Central Bank concerning management of international currency reserves in 2H 2008. In October, the State Duma instructed the Audit Chamber to probe the financial activities of the Bank of Russia for 2006-2008 in terms of management of international currency reserves. The Audit Chamber will inform the Duma members about the results of the probe in April.