IMF to resume work with Russia: Backlash from 9 European countries
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has announced that it will resume working with Russia. In response to the announcement, 9 European countries sent a protest letter to the IMF today (September 13) to express their opposition.
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The IMF announced in recent weeks that its financial relations with Russia would be 'rebuilt.' The finance ministers of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Sweden, Iceland, Denmark, Norway, and Poland expressed their opposition to the decision in a letter addressed to IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva.
In the letter, the finance ministers of the 9 countries wrote, 'We would like to express our strong dissatisfaction with such plans by the IMF.'
IMF Executive Director for Russia Aleksei Mozhin stated in a September 2 statement to Reuters that the Fund would resume online consultations on September 16 and that an IMF mission would visit Moscow to meet with Russian officials by October 1.
EU officials stated that Georgieva would attend a meeting in Budapest with EU finance ministers and central bank officials, where she would be questioned about the IMF's plans.
Speaking to Reuters, an EU official asked, 'What advice does the IMF want to give to Russia at the end of the consultation? How to better manage a war economy?'
The letter stated that as an 'aggressor country,' Russia should not benefit from IMF advice, and noted that if the IMF proceeds with its plans, the willingness of donor countries to support Ukraine through IMF initiatives would decrease, as this would undermine trust in the IMF.