IMF postpones planned consultations with Russia
Kyiv • UNN
The IMF has postponed its planned mission to Russia indefinitely. The official reason is technical unpreparedness.
The International Monetary Fund has postponed the planned consultation mission with Russia indefinitely due to technical issues, the director of the Russian mission to the IMF, Alexei Mozhin, said in a commentary to the Russian state media, UNN reports.
Details
"...the Fund's management informed the Russian side and the Board of Directors that the mission's work would be postponed indefinitely. The reason for postponing the mission was the mission's technical unpreparedness for consultations," Mozhyn said.
According to Reuters, the IMF did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The IMF's decision was reportedly announced on Monday, the day the mission was to start online consultations. They were to be followed by a visit of an IMF delegation to Moscow to meet with Russian officials.
"This would mean that the IMF could become the first major international financial body to send an official mission to Russia after the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022," the publication points out.
Mozhin said that the Russian side is "well aware" that a number of European countries "have spoken out about the inadmissibility of resuming cooperation between the IMF and Russia, about the inadmissibility of holding such consultations.
He said that "the Russian side has never asked for consultations, but has always expressed its readiness to accept the IMF mission to fulfill its obligations under the IMF charter." "The Russian side reaffirms this readiness," Mnogozin said.
The last annual IMF mission visited Russia in November 2019, before the start of the COVID pandemic.
Recall
Ukraine and the West have expressed concerns about the mission to Russia amid the Russian invasion.
