Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former French finance minister the European Union is backing to become head of the International Monetary Fund, lacks the technical qualifications for the job, according to Russia’s IMF executive director.

Aleksei Mozhin, whose government this week unexpectedly nominated a rival candidate, Josef Tosovsky, former prime minister of the Czech Republic, said Mr Strauss-Kahn was a “career politician” with insufficient qualifications to lead the IMF.