ISLAMABAD: Russia is consulting with its partners about challenging the United States (US) nominee to lead the World Bank, Moscow’s top representative at the bank has said, a move that could complicate what was expected to be a smooth process for succession.
Russia is a voting member of the World Bank. However, the global financial body halted all programmes in Russia and Belarus last March, citing what it called “hostilities against the people of Ukraine” following Russia’s invasion.
The World Bank executive director, Roman Marshavin, representing Russia and Syria, told the Reuters news agency that the “listing of potential candidates and consultations are still ongoing” but gave no further information. He said the decision would be taken in Moscow.
Moscow’s plans were first reported by Russia’s state-owned TASS news agency. It quoted Marshavin as saying that he was in discussions with other nations about possible candidates, including Russian financiers and foreign economists, ex-heads of international organizations, as well as many former ministers of finance and heads of central banks.
Marshavin refused to comment on the specifics of the TASS report or which other countries were involved.
US nominee
United States President Joe Biden last month nominated former Mastercard Chief Executive Officer Ajay Banga to replace David Malpass at the helm of the Bank, which oversees billions of dollars in financing for developing nations.
Banga, who is currently in Africa, last week said he had already won support from India, Kenya, and Ghana. He got positive reviews from France and Germany at the last month’s meeting of G20 finance officials and on Tuesday won the nod of Bangladesh.
The United States Treasury declined commenting on the possible Russian challenge.
While the World Bank will accept nominations from other nations until 29 March, Biden’s nomination all but assures that Banga will fill the post.
The WB has been headed by someone from the United States, the lender’s dominant shareholder, since its founding at the end of the second World War.
A challenge from Russia or an affiliated country is unlikely to change the outcome, given the shareholding structure, but it could expose simmering tensions between the US and Western nations and China — the bank’s third largest shareholder — over the World Bank and other global financial institutions.
