IMF postpones consultations with Moscow indefinitely

ISTANBUL

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has postponed its consultations with Moscow indefinitely, a Russian official said.

“The fund's management notified the Russian side and the board of directors that the (IMF) mission's work would be postponed indefinitely,” Alexey Mozhin, Moscow’s director at the IMF, told state news agency Tass late Tuesday.

“The technical unpreparedness of the mission to conduct consultations was cited as the reason for postponing the mission,” Mozhin further said.

He said Russia is aware that some officials from European countries have publicly dismissed resuming cooperation between Moscow and the IMF, and the “inadmissibility of holding such consultations."

According to Mozhin, the IMF’s decision was conveyed to the Russian side on Monday, when the fund’s mission was supposed to hold consultations with Moscow under Article 4 of its agreement, which he said was an issue raised for over a year.

He also said that the consultations were an initiative from the IMF itself, with Russia never asking for consultations but conveying its readiness to accept the fund’s mission.

The IMF has not yet commented on Mozhin’s remarks.

Earlier this month, the IMF announced that its mission would hold talks with Russian authorities on Sept. 16, after which they would travel to the country for in-person meetings.

These meetings would have made the IMF the first major international financial body to send a mission to Russia since the start of the Ukraine war over two years ago.

The fund’s last consultations with Russia took place in February 2021.​​​​​​​