Intl financial institutions must exclude politics from their actions towards Russia - Shuvalov
ST. PETERSBURG. June 1 (Interfax) - Russia hopes that key international financial institutions will drop their political motivated course to constrain Russia, otherwise this will damage their standing in the eyes of other countries, First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said.
"We will be very satisfied if those formats that are currently preventing us from making a full turnaround, will return to the basics of the existence of these institutions - the World Bank, the IMF [International Monetary Fund], the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. All their political motives and efforts to constrain us must go away," Shuvalov said at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).
"The question here is not Russia, otherwise other countries would be watching closely the developments and would certainly look for a different center of gravity," Shuvalov said.
"Russia is quite a big country. In principle, we will survive, we will maneuver. We'll be alright. But there are many countries that need a fairer order in which to protect their rights rather than dancing to the conductor's stick," Shuvalov said.
Russia "will proceed quite cleverly: it will develop the BRICS [Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa] format, and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, and facilitate the development of the One Belt, One Road format, " he said.
"We will be playing all boards. We don't want to domineer anywhere, we don't want to lead in such a way as to have to defend our leadership. If our leadership somewhere is secured, that is because we will be advancing better standards," the first deputy prime minister said.