IMF TALKS:

The newspaper “Kommersant daily” had harsh words for the prime minister’s aerial U-turn. “Russia has lost $15 billion, thanks to Primakov” read the headline. The paper’s editor later apologized to the notoriously thin-skinned prime minister. Primakov’s physical presence in Washington is not essential to Russia’s financial negotiations in any case. Michel Camdessus, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, arrived in Moscow over the weekend and will conduct the talks there.