Russia's Just Complaint
The Globe and Mail of Toronto's Eric Reguly has a good read on the fight for who will next lead the International Monetary Fund. The upshot: The West may have to stand aside on this battle with Moscow.
Reguly's piece begins: Russia is throwing its newfound weight around and the rest of Europe doesn't like it. The most recent Economist magazine called Russia a "neo-KGB state." The European Commission wants to restrict foreign companies' (read: Russian) access to the European Union's natural gas and electricity networks. Their businessmen are regarded as feral capitalists who will stop at nothing to fulfill their desires. Russia is throwing its weight around global - that is, American and European - institutions too. It doesn't like what's happening at the International Monetary Fund. In this case, Russia is not to be feared. It doesn't think the next IMF boss should automatically be a Western European and it has a point. Read story
Steve's comment: As a last negotiating stance, the Europeans are offering a fig leaf: If the Russians and the rest of the world go along this time with their nomination (of Frenchman Dominique Strauss-Kahn), a non-European can be chosen next time around.
That's a false concession -- a feint. Russia makes the strong point that Washington and Europe need to understand that the rest of the world -- growing economically in a far different way from the mid-1940s -- isn't going to, and shouldn't, go along with second-class status forever. Moscow has nominated former Czech prime minister Josef Tosovsky.
The West is going to have to explain why Strauss-Kahn should get the unquestioned nod.
Reguly's piece begins: Russia is throwing its newfound weight around and the rest of Europe doesn't like it. The most recent Economist magazine called Russia a "neo-KGB state." The European Commission wants to restrict foreign companies' (read: Russian) access to the European Union's natural gas and electricity networks. Their businessmen are regarded as feral capitalists who will stop at nothing to fulfill their desires. Russia is throwing its weight around global - that is, American and European - institutions too. It doesn't like what's happening at the International Monetary Fund. In this case, Russia is not to be feared. It doesn't think the next IMF boss should automatically be a Western European and it has a point. Read story
Steve's comment: As a last negotiating stance, the Europeans are offering a fig leaf: If the Russians and the rest of the world go along this time with their nomination (of Frenchman Dominique Strauss-Kahn), a non-European can be chosen next time around.
That's a false concession -- a feint. Russia makes the strong point that Washington and Europe need to understand that the rest of the world -- growing economically in a far different way from the mid-1940s -- isn't going to, and shouldn't, go along with second-class status forever. Moscow has nominated former Czech prime minister Josef Tosovsky.
The West is going to have to explain why Strauss-Kahn should get the unquestioned nod.
Labels: czech, imf, international monetary fund, Russia, strauss-kahn, tosovsky
2 Comments:
Two questions:
1. Can Russia gain support from the rest of the developing countries for its candidate for IMF directorship?
2. Does the opinion of the developing world count in the voting process for the IMF directoship? After all, the IMF is about the rich world providing financing to the poor world. Can beggars be choosers?
The main point I think is that the economic center of gravity has fractured, so that there are several of them -- China, Brazil, India for example. The argument on Russia's side is that these countries deserve more than spectators' seats in choosing the IMF and World Bank leaders. Of course, they will then be called upon to provide a proportionate percentage of the institutional budgets, which Russia does not mention.
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