WASHINGTON, March 16. /TASS/. Russian executive director at the IMF, Alexey Mozhin, continues to be dean of the board at the organization, but his role in this honorary position has been suspended, he told TASS.
Mozhin said "according to a long-time tradition of the fund, people that worked longer than anybody else on the board became deans."
"A dean has very many ceremonial functions. He has to wish the leadership of the fund a happy New Year on behalf of the board, for example. But there are functions that aren’t ceremonial. They have a lot of substance to them, and I don’t want to go into too much detail, but it’s a lot of work," said Mozhin, who gained the title of dean in 2014. He has represented Russia at the fund since 1996.
"An attempt was made by Western countries last year to remove me from the position of dean of the board," he said.
"When the special military operation started, the Canadians were the first to propose stripping me of that role because I’m Russian. They wanted to make the position elective. All that was discussed in an untransparent manner as there were no joint meetings on the subject," he said.
The Spanish representative was tasked with going from person to person with that proposal, Mozhin said.
"It was all done behind my back. I was quickly told about all this by representatives of non-Western countries. They opposed the proposal. As a result, a compromise solution was reached: I remain a dean, but my functions in this post are temporarily frozen. They were divided among the other directors. That means I was subjected to sanctions. In December last year, all this was extended until June, without any changes," the Russian representative said.
He said that since the beginning of the special military operation in Ukraine, his relations with representatives of non-Western countries "have become much better than ever."
"We're very close. They realized that Russia is not the West. We used to be associated with the West simply because of our race. And all this civilizational conflict showed them that we are not part of the West," Mozhin said.
The role of dean is unofficial but very prestigious and influential at the IMF. The dean chairs informal consultations of the board to reach a consensus before official votes on some of the most contentious issues. He represents the board, if need be, in reaching out to the public and the press.