IMF to send first mission to Russia since Ukraine invasion, 3 September 2024

The IMF will become the first major international financial body to send its official mission to Russia since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Aleksei Mozhin, the IMF's Russian executive director, told...

Mozhin said the International Monetary Fund mission would start via an online format on Sept. 16, and will continue with an IMF delegation visit to Moscow for meetings with Russian officials until Oct. 1.

The IMF’s last annual mission visited Russia in November 2019, before the start of the COVID pandemic. There have been no IMF missions to Russia since the start of Russia's war in Ukraine.

"We were excluded from this process under pressure from our Western 'friends' and there were no further missions in 2022-23," Mozhin said from his IMF office in Washington.

The mission will be led by Argentinian Jacques Miniane.

Many Western nations raised the possibility of Russia’s expulsion from the IMF in the aftermath of the Ukraine invasion, but that proved difficult because of reluctance from other members with large voting quotas such as China and India.

The IMF has been criticised by Western member states since the start of the war for providing what they say are overly optimistic outlooks for the sanctions-hit Russian economy, and warnings that any decisions about seizing frozen Russian assets should be backed with "sufficient legal support"...