MOSCOW, July 25 (RIA Novosti) - If the EU chooses to follow the United States and Canada in their opposition to Russia, the World Bank’s (WB) projects may never make it to the board, former deputy assistant secretary for development finance and debt at the US Treasury said Friday.
“If they [the World Bank] informally took a poll of their shareholders and understood that the balance weighed toward opposition, it’s very unlikely the bank management would proceed to bring something to the board and watch it be rejected,” Bloomberg quoted Scott Morris as saying.
The assessment follows a statement by US Treasury spokeswoman Holly Shulman saying that Washington will vote against Russia-related loans and investments presented before the board.
Canada and the United States account for 20 percent of the total votes among the 188 WB members, but the EU, generally acting as a single stakeholder, may tip the scale if it decides to adopt a tougher anti-Russia line.
The WB division that lends directly to governments currently runs 10 investment projects in Russia worth some $668 million, although less than half of the hefty amount has been disbursed so far, according to the institution. Another nine Russian projects totaling $1.34 billion are in preparation, covering spheres like preschool education and energy efficiency, according to WB website.
The WB found itself in a heated debate over economic sanctions targeting Russia, when the international lender approved its first Russian investment since the country’s reunification with Crimea. At the time Canada, voted against the project, while the United States and some EU countries abstained.
Earlier this week, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim stressed that “it is extremely important for the world community to have an organization that remains apart from the politics and focuses on economics,” in an attempt to keep WB outside the anti-Moscow rhetoric.
