Michel Camdessus has achieved significant results on past visits, but faces an almost impossible task this time.

Michel Camdessus faces an uphill struggle

He wants the Russian Government to introduce a sound budget but instead it is planning to cut taxes despite a huge budget deficit.

The IMF leader is scheduled to hold two days of talks with the Russian Prime Minister, Yevgeny Primakov, about the escalating financial crisis.

On arrival on Tuesday, Mr Camdessus said: "I came to get better acquainted with the prime minister and, I presume, have an interesting conversation with him."

Pensioners are among those hardest hit by Russia's spiralling crisis

Government ministers and Kremlin officials have warned that if the IMF does not sanction further cash aid Moscow will have no choice but to print money.

This could lead to hyper-inflation which ruined the Russian economy in 1992 and 1993.

But the IMF wants guarantees that Russia will stick to the path of market reforms and it also wants to see a clear budget plan before releasing the next $4.3bn slice of a $22.6 bn international loan package agreed in July.

An IMF team left Moscow last week with no agreement to release the money which has been frozen since September.

Handing out soup to the homeless in Russia

Meanwhile, Russia battles against a crisis which has seen the rouble sink in value, thousands of workers left unpaid and the government defaulting on some debt payments and a banking system near collapse.

The government had been expected to discuss its budget plans on Monday but will now do so on Thursday after Mr Camdessus leaves.

Russia is also discussing ways of postponing payments on its foreign debts with its creditors.

In Moscow, it is trying to restructure the government debt that was frozen in August, while it is talking with foreign banks in London and Paris about delaying payments on loans made to its banks and government.

Meanwhile, Russia's ailing president, Boris Yeltsin, who is in hospital with pneumonia, struggles to keep his grip on power and the economy slides deeper into economic chaos.