The International Monetary Fund (IMF) postponed a scheduled mission with Russia indefinitely due to technical problems, according to Alexey Mozhin, director of the Russian mission to the IMF.
The Fund’s management notified the Russian side and the board of directors that the mission’s work would be postponed indefinitely. Technical unpreparedness of the mission to conduct consultations was mentioned as the reason for postponing the mission.
Ukraine and its allies objected to the mission to Russia on the grounds that it would demonstrate normalisation of relations with Moscow despite the war.
The IMF’s decision came on Monday, when the mission was set to commence online consultations. They were expected to be followed by a visit by an IMF delegation to Moscow for meetings with Russian officials. The move would mark the first major international financial institution to send an official mission to Russia since the war in Ukraine broke out in February 2022.
Mozhin also stated that Moscow was “well aware” that many European countries “had spoken out about the unacceptability of the resumption of co-operation between the IMF and Russia.”
The last annual IMF mission visited Russia in November 2019, well before the COVID pandemic struck.
