On August 22, Russia nominated well-known Czech economist Josef Tosovsky as candidate for the post of International Monetary Fund managing director. It did so because the means for managing the world's financial system, with the World Bank and the IMF as key elements, is fundamentally out of date and in need of reform.

The essence of the historic agreement struck in the 1940s was that the head of the World Bank would be an American and the head of the IMF, a west European. This system is a relic of the colonial empires of Europe; in the past 60 years the world's economy has changed dramatically, with the rise of China, India and Brazil.