MOSCOW, September 19. /TASS/. The Russian side is ready to host the mission of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) within the framework of its obligations, but it is too early to talk about new dates for consultations, the press service of the Russian Ministry of Finance told TASS.

"The IMF informed us that the reason for postponing the mission was the technical unpreparedness of the Fund to hold consultations. New dates for Article IV consultations have not yet been set, and at this stage it is too early to talk about specific dates. The Russian side is ready to host the Fund's mission in fulfillment of its obligations under the IMF Charter," the press service told TASS.

Earlier, the IMF decided to postpone consultations with the Russian authorities as part of the annual review of the Russian economy under the Article IV of its Charter, while the relevant information is being collected and analyzed. On Tuesday, the IMF's Executive Director for Russia Alexey Mozhin told TASS that the work of the Fund's mission, which was supposed to participate in consultations with the Russian authorities as part of the annual review of the Russian economy, was postponed indefinitely. "Technical unpreparedness of the mission to conduct consultations was mentioned" as a reason, he said.

At the same time, Mozhin added that "the Russian side is well aware that official representatives of a number of European countries have spoken publicly about the unacceptability of resuming cooperation between the IMF and Russia, about the inadmissibility of holding such consultations."

Earlier, the IMF announced its intention to resume consultations with the Russian authorities for the first time since 2022 as part of the annual review of the Russian economy under the Article IV of its Charter. The last time the Fund's mission visited Russia was in November 2019, after which the meetings were held in absentia for two years.