Russia's withdrawal from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) would make other countries follow its lead and deprive the organization of its global status, IMF Executive Director for Russia Aleksei Mozhin told Sputnik.
"The main shareholders of the IMF are our worst enemies today. However, they understand that if we leave, the IMF will cease to be a global institution and other countries will follow Russia and exit it," Mozhin said.
Russia does not need anything from the IMF, but benefits from having access to information and documents, Mozhin added.
The executive director also pointed out that the IMF has always been politically biased in its analyses, but it has gone off the scale now.
"Bias has always existed in the fund's analytics, but the degree which it has reached now is already off the scale," Mozhin said.
He stressed that there are many examples of the IMF highlighting specific negative events in relation to some countries while keeping silent in relation to others.
"Positive moments are kept silent for some and put forward for others. There are plenty of such examples in the fund’s documents," he added.
For example, the IMF discusses problems related to high public debt in low- and middle-income countries, but remains silent about high-income countries where debts are off the charts, Mozhin said.
In addition, the IMF has fallen victim to geopolitical tensions and become an increasingly unfair organization, the official added.
"We have no reason to be happy about what is happening at the IMF. Unfortunately, we see that geopolitical differences have affected the fund's activities. The IMF has become a victim, perhaps the main victim, of the geopolitical situation," Mozhin said.
The IMF is becoming an increasingly politicized and unfair institution, the Russian representative said.