Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom decide to withdraw the title of member of the IMF executive board from the Russian representative

Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom want Aleksei Mozhin, Russia’s representative to the IMF, to relinquish or be stripped of his title as honorary head of the board of the multilateral lender following the invasion of Ukraine.

Canada first proposed that Mozhin relinquish the title of dean of the IMF’s executive board at a February 25 meeting, a day after Russia launched its attack, according to people familiar with the matter. The United States supported the effort at the same meeting and the United Kingdom also supports his removal, the sources added.

Mozhin has served as dean of the board since 2015, a largely honorary title conferred on the most senior member who does not exercise any official responsibility or authority. IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva chairs the board and is responsible for calling meetings, setting the agenda, and facilitating discussion.

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However, when the board is looking for a new chief executive, or questions arise over a seat – as was the case last year when Georgieva was accused of manipulating data on behalf of China during his time at the World Bank – the dean intervenes. occasionally to speak on behalf of the Board of Directors. For some IMF members, having Mozhin perform even those limited ceremonial duties on behalf of the board in the wake of Russia’s assault on Ukraine has become unacceptable.

“On an operational basis [the role] is kind of irrelevant,” said a former senior IMF official. “But these are unusual times and certainly the signal aspect of not having a Russian in that slot would be significant.”

Mozhin did not respond to a request for comment on his intentions. He has shown no willingness to give up the title, people familiar with the matter have said, and it is unclear if there is a mechanism to remove him from his role or if there is enough support for it. The IMF declined to comment.

The attempt to strip Mozhin of his title is part of a broader effort by Western nations and many other members of the international community to isolate and punish Russia for the attack on Ukraine – from economic sanctions to condemnation to the within multilateral institutions.

Within the IMF, a much bigger step would be to try to strip Russia of its voting rights on the board, but that would require overwhelming support within the board as well as an assessment of the failure to Moscow meets its obligations to the Fund based on economic and financial criteria, which may be difficult to prove.

Russia’s share of voting rights in the IMF is 2.59%, compared to 16.5% for the United States. Meanwhile, some Western members of the IMF have been considering how to deny Russia the ability to convert $17 billion in special drawing rights, a form of reserve asset issued by the IMF, into hard currencies like the dollar, euro or yen, to circumvent the sanctions imposed on its central bank.

“The United States is committed to taking all measures to prevent Russia from benefiting from its holdings of IMF SDRs,” a US Treasury official told the Financial Times, adding that Moscow “would face significant obstacles, even insurmountable, to use its SDRs”.

“The United States and our partners, who make up the vast majority of counterparties available in the IMF’s SDR trading system, will not engage in SDR swaps with Russia.”

Although managing Russia’s presence as a major IMF shareholder was tricky for the Fund in light of the war, it was not shy about expressing its support for Ukraine. Georgieva joined World Bank President David Malpass this week in saying that their institutions are “standing with the people of Ukraine through these horrific developments” and “working together to support Ukraine on the financing fronts.” and politics and urgently increase that support”.

Ukraine agreed to a $2.8 billion IMF program last November after a difficult period with the organization pushing the Kyiv government to strengthen its central bank’s independence and crack down on corruption.

The IMF declined to comment on the push to remove Mozhin from his post as dean.

Mozhin came to the IMF just after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1992 as an alternate executive director, becoming Russia’s top representative in 1996.

In 2007, before becoming dean of the board of directors, he spoke out publicly against the appointment of Dominique Strauss-Kahn as head of the Fund, saying he did not have the technical skills for the position. After Strauss-Kahn was forced to resign in 2011, Mozhin said the IMF should abandon the convention that its managing director would be European.

In 2018, when Christine Lagarde, then head of the IMF, visited St. Petersburg, Russia, including a meeting with President Vladimir Putin, Mozhin took her on a tour of the city.

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