Russian Bigwig Threatens To Sue Bush
Former Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin has threatened to sue George W. Bush over the candidate's allegation that he had misappropriated money from the International Monetary Fund.
During his debate with Vice President Al Gore on Wednesday, Bush alleged that Chernomyrdin had diverted loans from the International Monetary Fund to his own use. Bush made the charge to back up his contention that foreign aid should be clearly tied to reform and that the IMF itself should be reformed.
In an exchange about the IMF and the World Bank during the second presidential debate Wednesday night, Bush said there had been a “lot of egregious examples recently” of foreign aid being misused.
“We went into Russia, we said here's some IMF money. It ended up in Victor Chernomyrdin's pocket and others. And yet we played like there was reform,” Bush said.
IMF spokesman Thomas Dawson said that the organization had no evidence that Chernomyrdin had diverted any IMF loans to his own use. And Chernomyrdin himself rejected the allegation.
“I think that it's necessary for Mr. Bush, Jr. to prepare for a court examination on this question,” he said in a press release issued Thursday.
“Mr. Bush can hardly achieve a serious success in the political field if he makes his pre-electoral steps on the side of re-examining economic cooperation with Russia and, doing this, uses absolutely unacceptable methods of discrediting Russian politicians,” Chernomyrdin said.
Dawson noted that the IMF already had moved in response to allegations about improper accounting of IMF loans to institute new policies including the requirement that Russia and other nations have their books checked by independent auditors in return for IMF support.
“We don't dismiss these issues and when we do hear these allegations, which come up fairly regularly, we take them quite seriously,” Dawson told reporters at an IMF press briefing. He also said the agency would be ready to look into any allegations anyone cared to bring forward.
Chernomyrdin said that Bush had simply reiterated charges that have been published “for years in the gutter press.”
“But I think that the American public can objectively evaluate words that are libelous in form and dirty in essence from a man who is aspiring to the highest government post,” Chernomyrdin said.
Dawson said the IMF planned to send a team to Moscow on Nov. 7 to continue talks on restarting an IMF loan program that was suspended in 1998 when Russia's economy collapsed during the Asian financial crisis.
Gore has come under fire from Republicans for his close relationship with Russian leaders and his hands-on role in U.S.-Russian diplomacy. He and Chernomyrdin co-chaired a joint commission on bilateral ties.
Russia has been making repayments to the IMF this yar on past loans in an effort to win IMF approval for a resumption of the loan program, something seen as necessary for the country to attract private capital.
Russia owes the IMF about $12 billion for past loans.