Is Something Up with Shakeup in Russian Delegate to Eurasian Development Bank?

April 17, 2023, 2022 (EIRNS)—The TASS wire reporting the April 15 government order relieving Finance Minister Anton Siluanov of his post as envoy to the Council of the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) leaves the clear impression that this was not a routine decision, but likely policy-related. First, the verb “dismissed” in the headline (“Siluanov Dismissed from Post of Russian Envoy to EDB Council”), and then the cited opening phrase of the decree effecting the change: “In connection with the profound changes taking place in international relations....”

Full quote:

“Russia’s Minister of Finance Anton Siluanov has been relieved of performing the duties of the plenipotentiary representative of the Russian Federation in the Council of the Eurasian Development Bank until the subsequent appointment of a new plenipotentiary representative of the Russian Federation to the Council of the Eurasian Development Bank.”

The April 14 government order, signed by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, was posted to the official legal information Internet portal.

TASS describes the EDB, created in 2006 at the initiative of Russia and Kazakhstan, as “an international financial organization carrying out investment activities in Eurasia with the aim of expanding economic ties and comprehensive development of the participating countries (Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan). Projects with an integration effect in the areas of transport infrastructure, digital systems, green energy, agriculture, industry and mechanical engineering account for the main share of the EDB’s portfolio.”

It is not formally tied to the Eurasian Economic Union, but the two institutions’ members overlap, except for Tajikistan, the one EDB shareholder which is not also a member of the EAEU. Armenia and Tajikistan became full members of the Bank in 2009, Belarus in 2010, and the Kyrgyz Republic in 2011, according to the Armenian Finance Ministry writeup.