Baltic: Finance ministers protest IMF’s planned mission to Russia

The finance ministers of the eight Nordic and Baltic countries as well as Poland have protested against the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) plan to resume missions to Russia, Euractiv reports. The nine EU ministers sent a joint letter to IMF director Kristalina Georgieva, warning that the decision to resume dialogue with an aggressor state would undermine trust in the fund and damage its reputation. The governors of the Estonian and Lithuanian central banks expressed their support for the letter, ERR and BNS reported. The IMF stopped annual consultations with Russia after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. However, the IMF now plans to send a delegation to Moscow for meetings with Russian officials. The mission will provide recommendations on how Russia can improve its war economy, The Guardian reported.