Russia Ratifies IMF, World Bank Membership
The Russian Parliament ratified Russia’s membership of the International Monetary Fund on Friday and gave the government the green light to continue its economic reforms.
The vote was 127 to 1 to approve Russia’s decision to join the IMF and the World Bank.
“Entering the system of world currency and financial operations meets Russia’s vital interests,” President Boris N. Yeltsin said in a message to Parliament.
Yegor T. Gaidar, the main architect of Russia’s radical economic reform plans, told the deputies that money the Kremlin would get as a result of membership would be used primarily to help make the ruble convertible.
But he said that a promise of $2.2 billion to help Russia and other members of the Commonwealth of Independent States service the foreign debt of the former Soviet Union is more important at the moment than other loans and future investment. Russian currency reserves are in a poor state, he said.
Parliamentary chairman Ruslan I. Khasbulatov, a leading critic of the government’s reforms, succeeded in amending the resolution on ratification, obliging the government to coordinate with Parliament its work with the international organizations.
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