BBC News Online: World: Europe

Russia IMF loan embezzled

The authorities in Russia say around $4bn of IMF funds lent to the country in late 1990s have been embezzled.

Sergei Stepashin, the head of the Accounts Chamber, Russia's state financial monitoring agency, said an investigation into the missing billions was expected to conclude at the end of the year.

Mr Stepashin said the money had been misappropriated just before the economic crash of 1998 when the value of the country's currency, the rouble, plunged.

The International Monetary Fund lent Russia billions of dollars in the late 1990s as part of a global effort to lift the country's economy.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service