A few days ago, a new managing director of the International Monetary Fund was elected. He was the European Union’s candidate, Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Those who had anything to do with the matter understood perfectly that once the EU and US had agreed between themselves, the French candidate’s victory was pre-determined. So a natural question arises, which was raised several times during the closed consultations, including in the press: why did Moscow propose an alternative candidate, Josef Tosovsky, knowing that his chances of success under the existing system of distribution of quotas, determining the outcome of voting, were not high? I would like to explain Russia’s position.

In the second half of the 1940s, in the framework of understandings following the Bretton Woods agreement, the US and leading countries of western Europe came to the decision that they would control the international financial system. More than half a century has passed and much has changed in the world. The era of colonial empires is past. The role of countries such as China, India and Brazil in the world economy is growing and it is impossible not to take this into account in the organisation of the global financial system. As far back as 2000, the Italian finance minister warned that the system of elections, whereby the US and western Europe agreed on who would lead important international financial institutions, and the rest of the world was left only to watch what was going on, was odd, and in the long term, unstable. The Financial Times noted at the time that such a procedure could not continue much longer.