World
Russia Seeks Indivisible Working Relationship With IMF
By Kestér Kenn Klomegâh
After several years of mounting fierce criticisms over the operations and performance of the International Monetary Fund [IMF] and consistently advocating for its structural reforms, Russia has reversed its position to get back into and strengthen its position with this multilateral financial organization. With the current geopolitical shift which is reshaping the world’s economic architecture, Russia has been [re]prioritising its association by a fresh announcement over an appointment of a representative with the IMF.
In February 2024, the International Monetary Fund [IMF] endorsed Russia’s macroeconomic programmes, further describing them as admirable steps, and primarily with pivotal development initiatives which is integral to its broader strategy for transforming an ambitious modern economy. In fact, IMF director Kristalina Georgieva upgraded the forecast for Russia’s growth. Reports have also indicated that Russia was on the right path to achieve more and maintain its 4th position in the rankings. The IMF doubled its forecast for Russian growth in 2024, boosting its prediction from 1.1% to 2.6% in January. And that marks the biggest jump for the former Soviet republic, Russia.
On the other hand, Russian economic conditions are starting to look more and more like the country’s 20th-century predecessor, where high production levels clashed with weak demand. “That is pretty much what the Soviet Union used to look like,” Kristalina Ivanova Georgieva-Kinova, a Bulgarian economist serving as the 12th managing director of the International Monetary Fund since 2019, said at the World Governments Summit in Dubai. “High level of production, low level of consumption. I think that the Russian economy is [in] for very tough times, because of the outflow of people and because of the reduced access to technology that comes with the sanctions.”
Recognizing the importance of multinationals, in late September 2024, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, by signing an executive order, instructed Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, who is International Monetary Fund Governor for the Russian Federation, to nominate Ksenia Yudaeva for election as Russia’s Executive Director at the IMF. Without a doubt, the sanctioned former central banker will now become Russia’s IMF representative.
Local Russian media reported that Yudaeva, a former Central Bank of Russia’s first deputy governor, could become Russia’s Executive Director at the IMF. It further said Alexei Mozhin had been Russia’s permanent representative at the IMF since the 1990s. Back in 1991, when Yegor Gaidar led the government, he headed a new department for liaison with international financial organizations, and he became Russia’s Executive Director at the IMF in 1996. Data shows that Russia joined the IMF on June 1, 1992.
Mozhin has served as the Dean of the IMF Executive Board since 2014 as the Fund’s oldest active member. This status carries with it certain functions, for example, the Dean makes announcements on behalf of the board on the selection and appointment of the IMF Managing Director. The IMF Board of Governors suspended the role of Dean in March 2022, in connection with the events in Ukraine.
In a related development in establishing a working relationship between Russia and the IMF, the September 2024 media briefing of the IMF report indicated that Article IV Consultations with Russia would resume in line with the obligations and would hold bilateral discussions with the Russian authorities. This would include meeting with some different stakeholders to discuss the country’s economic developments, prospects, and policies.
During the upcoming visit to Russia, there are arrangements to meet with Ksenia Yudaeva, the next Executive Director from Russia in the IMF. “Actually, in the case of Russia, since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the economic situation has been exceptionally unsettled, which has made it difficult to anchor Article IV Consultations, especially thinking about the outlook and policy frameworks for both the near- and the medium-term. Now that the economic situation is more settled, Article IV Consultations with Russia are resuming, in line with the obligations of both the Fund and the member country,” Julie Kozack, Director of the Communications Department, IMF, told the media briefing on September 12, 2024.
Quite a bit in the past time, Russia has made an irreversible decision to suspend its membership and future participation in a number of multinational organizations and institutions, and highly disparaging them instead of mutually cooperating on needed reforms within the context of the emerging multipolar system. With the dominance of the United States and its concept of democracy, Russia has also spearheaded the formation of anti-western antagonistic tendencies and trends across the world. The world is largely now drawn into either creating an interactive, fairer multipolar world or the group against Western hegemony.
Reports monitored by this author indicated that Russia has already exited, following the historic fall of the Soviet era, from international organizations and multinational institutions. It has urged many leaders in Latin America, Asia and Africa to vehemently oppose conservative Western-style rules-based order and hegemony. Remarkable, during these past few years, many countries from these regions have increasingly shown diverse interests in joining BRICS+ (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), an informal association with a virtual secretariat, attempting to institutionalize South-South cooperation and taking radical steps entirely working towards improving the situation in the Global South.
BRICS+ established its New Development Bank in 2015, as an alternative to the IMF and the World Bank. Its primary aim is to compete with these multinational financial institutions, offer interest-free loans and invest heavily in developing countries. At the 6th BRICS summit in July 2014, the BRICS members (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) announced the BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA) with an initial size of $100 billion, a framework to provide liquidity through currency swaps in response to actual or potential short-term balance-of-payments pressures. It has yet to measure or assess the visible impact it has made since its establishment in 2015.
The IMF works to stabilize and foster the economies of its member countries by its use of the fund, as well as other activities such as gathering and analyzing economic statistics and surveillance of its members’ economies. The recurrent challenge has been to promote and implement a policy that reduces the frequency of crises among emerging market countries, especially middle-income countries which are vulnerable to massive capital outflows. It supported Russia during the 1998 Russian financial crisis, from spreading and threatening the entire global financial and currency system. According to official reports, four emerging market countries (Brazil, China, India, and Russia) are among the ten largest members of the IMF. Other top 10 members are the United States, Japan, Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Italy.
By Kestér Kenn Klomegâh
At the end of an extensive consultation with African foreign ministers, Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, has emphasized that Moscow would advance its economic engagement across Africa, admittedly outlining obstacles delaying the prompt implementation of several initiatives set forth in Strategic Action Plan (2023-2026) approved in St. Petersburg during the Russia-Africa Summit.
The second Ministerial Conference, by the Russian Foreign Ministry with support from Roscongress Foundation and the Arab Republic of Egypt, marked an important milestone towards raising bilateral investment and economic cooperation.
In Cairo, the capital city of the Arab Republic of Egypt, Lavrov read out the final resolution script, in a full-packed conference hall, and voiced strong confidence that Moscow would achieve its strategic economic goals with Africa, with support from the African Union (AU) and other Regional Economic blocs in the subsequent years. Despite the complexities posed by the Russia-Ukraine crisis, combined with geopolitical conditions inside the African continent, Moscow however reiterated its position to take serious steps in finding pragmatic prospects for mutual cooperation and improve multifaceted relations with Africa, distinctively in the different sectors: in trade, economic and investment spheres, education and culture, humanitarian and other promising areas.
The main event was the plenary session co-chaired by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Emigration, and Egyptians Abroad Bashar Abdelathi. Welcome messages from Russian President Vladimir Putin and Egyptian President Abdelhak Sisi were read.
And broadly, the meeting participants compared notes on the most pressing issues on the international and Russian-African agendas, with a focus on the full implementation of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum Action Plan for 2023-2026, approved at the second Russia-Africa Summit in St. Petersburg in 2023.
In addition, on the sidelines of the conference, Lavrov held talks with his African counterparts, and a number of bilateral documents were signed. A thematic event was held with the participation of Russian and African relevant agencies and organizations, aimed at unlocking the potential of trilateral Russia-Egypt-Africa cooperation in trade, economic, and educational spheres.
With changing times, Africa is rapidly becoming one of the key centers of a multipolar world order. It is experiencing a second awakening. Following their long-ago political independence, African countries are increasingly insisting on respect for their sovereignty and their right to independently manage their resources and destiny. Based on these conditions, it was concluded that Moscow begins an effective and comprehensive work on preparing a new three-year Cooperation and Joint Action Plan between Russia and Africa.
Moreover, these important areas of joint practical work are already detailed in the Joint Statement, which was unanimously approved and will serve as an important guideline for future work. According to reports, the Joint Statement reflects the progress of discussions on international and regional issues, as well as matters of global significance.
Following the conference, the Joint Statement adopted reflects shared approaches to addressing challenges and a mutual commitment to strengthening multifaceted cooperation with a view to ensuring high-quality preparation for the third Russia-Africa Summit in 2026.
On December 19-20, the Second Ministerial Conference of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum was held in Cairo, Egypt. It was held for the first time on the African continent, attended by heads and representatives of the foreign policy ministries of 52 African states and the executive bodies of eight regional integration associations.
By Adedapo Adesanya
Social media platform, TikTok’s Chinese owner ByteDance has signed binding agreements with United States and global investors to operate its business in America.
Half of the joint venture will be owned by a group of investors, including Oracle, Silver Lake and the Emirati investment firm MGX, according to a memo sent by chief executive, Mr Shou Zi Chew.
The deal, which is set to close on January 22, 2026 would end years of efforts by the US government to force ByteDance to sell its US operations over national security concerns.
It is in line with a deal unveiled in September, when US President Donald Trump delayed the enforcement of a law that would ban the app unless it was sold.
In the memo, TikTok said the deal will enable “over 170 million Americans to continue discovering a world of endless possibilities as part of a vital global community”.
Under the agreement, ByteDance will retain 19.9 per cent of the business, while Oracle, Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi-based MGX will hold 15 per cent each.
Another 30.1 per cent will be held by affiliates of existing ByteDance investors, according to the memo.
The White House previously said that Oracle, which was co-founded by President Trump’s supporter Larry Ellison, will license TikTok’s recommendation algorithm as part of the deal.
The deal comes after a series of delays.
Business Post reported in April 2024 that the administration of President Joe Biden passed a law to ban the app over national security concerns, unless it was sold.
The law was set to go into effect on January 20, 2025 but was pushed back multiple times by President Trump, while his administration worked out a deal to transfer ownership.
President Trump said in September that he had spoken on the phone to China’s President Xi Jinping, who he said had given the deal the go ahead.
The platform’s future remained unclear after the leaders met face to face in October.
The app’s fate was clouded by ongoing tensions between the two nations on trade and other matters.
By Kestér Kenn Klomegâh
Despite the complexities posed by Russia-Ukraine crisis, United States has been taking conscious steps to improve commercial relations with Russia. Unsurprisingly, Russia, on the other hand, is also moving to restore and normalise its diplomacy, negotiating for direct connections of air-routes and passionate permission to return its diplomats back to Washington and New York.
In the latest developments, Kirill Dmitriev, Chief Executive Officer of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), has been appointed as Russian President’s Special Envoy to United States. This marked an important milestone towards raising bilateral investment and economic cooperation. Russian President Vladimir Putin tasked him to exclusively promote business dialogue between the two countries, and further to negotiate for the return of U.S. business enterprises. According to authentic reports, United States businesses lost $300+ bn during this Russia-Ukraine crisis, while Russia’s estimated 1,500 diplomats were asked to return to Moscow.
Strategically in late November 2025, the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia (AmCham) has awarded Kirill Dmitriev, praised him for calculated efforts in promoting positive dialogue between the United States and Russia within the framework decreed by President Vladimir Putin. Chief Executive Officer of Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) Kirill Dmitriev is the Special Representative of the Russian President for Economic Cooperation with Foreign Countries. Since his appointment, his primary focus has been on United States.
“Received an American Chamber of Commerce award ‘For leadership in fostering the US-Russia dialogue,’” Dmitriev wrote on his X page, in late November, 2025. According to Dmitriev, more than 150 US companies are currently operating in Russia, with more than 70% of them being present on the Russian market for over 25 years.
In addition, Chamber President Sergey Katyrin and American Chamber of Commerce in Russia (AmCham) President Robert Agee have also been discussing alternatives pathways to raise bilateral business cooperation. Both have held series of meetings throughout this year, indicating the the importance of sustaining relations as previously. Expectedly, the Roscongress Foundation has been offered its platforms during St. Petersburg International Economic (SPIEF) for the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham).
On December 9, Sergey Katyrin and Robert Agee noted that, despite existing problems and non-economic obstacles, the business communities of Russia and the United States proceed from the necessity of maintaining professional dialogue. Despite the worsening geopolitical conditions, Sergey Katyrin and Robert Agee noted the importance of preserving stable channels of trade and pragmatic prospects for economic cooperation. These will further serve as a stabilizing factor and an instrument for building mutual trust at the level of business circles, industry associations, and the expert community.
The American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) will be working in the system of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) in the Russian Federation, which currently comprises 57,000 legal entities, 130 regional chambers and a combined network of representative offices covering more than 350 points of presence.
According to reports obtained by this article author from the AmCham, promising sectors for Russian-American economic cooperation include healthcare and the medical industry, civil aviation, communications/telecom, natural resource extraction, and energy/energy equipment. The United States and Russia have, more or less, agreed to continue coordinating their work to facilitate the formation of a more favorable environment for Russian and American businesses, reduce risks, and strengthen business ties. Following the American-Russian Dialogue, a joint statement and working documents were adopted.
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