THE FUND:
THE FUND:
The International Monetary Fund has not yet retreated from its insistence on increased taxes as a condition for approval of a new $4.5 billion credit. If granted, the credit would not be disbursed in Moscow but would be used as an electronic offset to repay earlier IMF loans. The latest cabinet crisis makes passage of the tax legislation and related measures unlikely. If that happens, the Fund could find itself without a pretext for approving a loan it needs to bail itself out.
