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[text/observer network qi qian] according to an exclusive report by reuters on september 13, on that day, nine european countries "strongly protested" the international monetary fund (imf)'s plan to send a delegation to visit russia, claiming that resuming dialogue with "a country that has invaded other countries" would damage the imf's reputation.

after the russian-ukrainian conflict in february 2022, the imf, headquartered in washington, dc, stopped its annual consultation mechanism with russia. two and a half years later, on september 2, alexey mozin, the imf's russian executive director, told reuters that the imf will restart online consultations on september 16 and will continue to send an imf delegation to moscow to meet with russian officials until october 1.

afterwards, the finance ministers of nine countries, including lithuania, latvia, estonia, finland, sweden, iceland, denmark, norway and poland, jointly wrote a letter to imf managing director kristalina georgieva, expressing their “strong dissatisfaction” with the plan. reuters has seen the contents of the letter.

an official from a eurozone country said that georgieva is attending the eu finance ministers and central bank governors meeting in budapest, and european countries will ask her about this matter. for example, "what advice does the imf want to give to russia at the end of the consultation? how to better manage the wartime economy?"

the finance ministers of the nine countries claimed that russia, "as an aggressor," should not benefit from the imf's advice, and pointed out that if the imf implements its plan, it will weaken the willingness of donor countries to support ukraine through imf initiatives because it will undermine the trust of member countries in the imf. at that time, "donors can choose other institutions such as the world bank or the european bank for reconstruction and development," the letter said.

the letter also said that any data russia provided to the imf was censored to show that the country's economy was performing well and resisting western sanctions, which made the imf's assessment of the russian economy inaccurate. in addition, russia will use this to achieve its own propaganda purposes, which will damage the reputation of the imf.

"therefore, we call on the imf not to resume cooperation with russia and to remain committed to the purposes and principles of the un charter," the nine finance ministers said. "we urge all international financial institutions, including the imf and its management, to continue to avoid activities involving 'aggressor countries' and not to resume dialogue as long as russia continues to wage an 'aggressive war' against ukraine."

on the 12th, the imf responded that its planned visit to russia was in line with the imf's routine obligations and russia's obligations as a member country.

imf spokeswoman julie kozak told a news conference that the annual consultation mechanism, also known as the annual economic review, is part of the "mutual obligations" between the imf and its member countries and is recorded in the imf's articles of agreement.

kozak said that the imf has not held consultations with russia since 2021, not intentionally by the institution, but due to the economic situation in russia, which is "extraordinarily unstable" after the russian-ukrainian conflict. "now that the russian economic situation has stabilized, consultations are resuming... this is in line with the obligations of the fund and its member countries."

according to russia's tass news agency, russian central bank governor elvira nabiullina confirmed on the 13th that the bank has resumed consultations with the imf and said that "this is a routine and permanent practice for all imf member countries."

reuters and russia today (rt) mentioned that since the russia-ukraine conflict, the united states and the west have jointly imposed a series of sanctions on russia, including financial sanctions. among them, many western countries have proposed the possibility of expelling russia from the imf. however, due to opposition from other member countries with a large number of voting rights, such as china and india, this is difficult to achieve.

last month, russian finance minister anton siluanov said in an interview with russian media that the country's economic growth exceeded expectations. he said that despite the many economic restrictions imposed by the west on russia, russia's gdp grew by 4.7% in the first half of this year, which is a "very good number." it is expected that by the end of this year, the russian economy will grow by 3.9%.

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