MOSCOW -- Only minor differences remain between Russia and the International Monetary Fund over a new loan package, a Russian official said after talks Sunday with the visiting IMF chief.
But IMF Managing Director Michel Camdessus was less sanguine about negotiations for the aid that Moscow badly wants but the IMF has been reluctant to approve.Russia's top negotiator with the fund, First Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Maslyukov, said there were just "millimeters" of disagreement left, including differences over Russia's policy on its influential energy monopolies, the ITAR-Tass news agency said.
Camdessus, when he heard of Maslyukov's comments, laughed and said he would have to ask Maslyukov how he defined "millimeter."