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- <text id=92TT1026>
- <title>
- May 11, 1992: Welcome to the Family
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1992
- May 11, 1992 L.A.:"Can We All Get Along?"
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- THE WEEK, Page 14
- BUSINESS
- Welcome to the Family
- </hdr><body>
- <p>The IMF and World Bank ask the former Soviet republics to join
- </p>
- <p> In another milestone on the increasingly bumpy road to
- capitalism, Russia and most of the other former Soviet republics
- were formally offered membership in the world's two major
- financial organizations, the World Bank and the International
- Monetary Fund. The step has symbolic importance: fueled by cold
- war animosities, the Soviet Union never joined the global
- bodies, formed by the Western powers at the Bretton Woods
- monetary conference in 1944. But last week's move has immediate
- practical implications as well. It will trigger the release of
- much of the $24 billion in aid that has been pledged by the
- major industrialized nations to help the former Soviets convert
- to a free-market economy.
- </p>
- <p> The money, however, will not come without strings. In
- return for the funds, the IMF has called on the republics to
- institute major economic reforms. Yegor T. Gaidar, Russia's
- Deputy Prime Minister and chief economic representative, said
- recognition by the world economic bodies will help speed his
- country's transition to a market economy. Back home, however,
- President Boris Yeltsin was trying to assuage fears that Russia
- is giving up much of its economic independence. "We don't fully
- agree with the opinions of the IMF," he said, "and we will
- defend our point of view."
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
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