Politics No Cause For Problems Between Russia, IMF (Reuters)
MOSCOW, May. 14, 1999 -- (Reuters) The firing of Russia's Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov will not hurt relations with the International Monetary Fund, a local news agency quoted a government official as saying on Thursday.
Interfax quoted Deputy Finance Minister Oleg Vyugin as saying that the Fund would be happy as long as Russia stuck to the program agreed last month.
"It is very important for them that Russia has an economic program agreed with them," Vyugin said.
"It outlines concrete measures and, if they are implemented in the form and the way they have been agreed, it is not all that important to the Fund who constitutes the government."
President Boris Yeltsin sacked Primakov on Wednesday criticizing his government for being slow in improving the economic situation. Yeltsin appointed Sergei Stepashin, former interior minister, as acting prime minister.
The Primakov government last month reached agreement with the IMF on new lending, but the Fund said a number of laws aimed at boosting revenues must be passed first.
Primakov's dismissal should not slow the government's work on the bills required by the IMF, Interfax quoted Vyugin as saying. Stepashin would meet acting Finance Minister Mikhail Zadornov on Thursday to discuss the economy and relations with the IMF, RIA news agency quoted a government spokesman as saying.
The government continued working with IMF experts and met the Fund's Moscow officials on Wednesday to discuss April revenues, Interfax quoted Vyugin as saying.
"So far they have not done the analysis, but I think that April budget revenue data will not draw any complaints from them," he said.
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