Remember Yeltsin threatening nuclear targeting of Europe.. smart cookie, it worked:
Top Financial News
Fri, 23 Apr 1999, 8:39am EDT
IMF to Resume Russian Lending After 8-Month Break Amid Political
Pressure
IMF Set to Resume Russian Lending as Pressure Mounts (Update2)
(Adds economist's comment in next to last paragraph.)
Moscow, April 23 (Bloomberg) -- The International Monetary
Fund is set to resume lending to Russia after an eight-month hiatus
to bolster its crumbling economy and promote stability as U.S.-
Russian relations deteriorate over NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia.
First Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Maslyukov tomorrow leads a
Russian delegation to the IMF's annual meeting in Washington. He'll
probably win agreement on a loan of at least $4.5 billion, the same
amount Russia owes the IMF this year in payments on previous loans,
after U.S. and British officials said Russia must be helped.
There are ''enormous national security issues'' with Russia,
U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin said yesterday in New York.
Getting Russia back on track is ''very difficult, but we cannot
afford not to do it.''
The IMF meeting comes as the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization continues its air campaign against Yugoslavia over
Russian objections. After six months of talks, IMF Managing
Director Michel Camdessus and Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny
Primakov said last month they'd reached an agreement in principle
that the fund would resume lending, though they hadn't settled on
an amount or on final details of the government's efforts to
improve revenue collection.
Russian Finance Minister Mikhail Zadornov, who also will
attend the IMF meetings in Washington next week, said talks with
the IMF team currently in Moscow are in their ''absolutely final''
stages.
'Politically Realistic'
''We are currently working on the fiscal and monetary program,
balance of payments and the memorandum,'' Zadornov said after a
session in the lower house of parliament. Documents ''are in the
absolutely final stages of completion. It will be clear by this
evening,'' whether an agreement will be reached.
An IMF team has been in Moscow for the past two weeks
reviewing the government's program, which probably still falls
short of IMF targets, analysts said.
''The IMF is being politically realistic enough at the moment
not to throw away the entire program because Russia is failing to
improve its fiscal situation,'' said Roland Nash, head of credit
analysis at MFK Renaissance brokerage in Moscow. ''Russia and the
IMF want to have a program -- they will find mutual
understanding.''
Bombings 'Influenced Atmosphere'
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