Well, there is no "ordinary Russian," but everybody outside of Chubais hates the IMF. Even economic advisor to Putin Andrei Illarionov hates the IMF. It did nothing throughout the 90s but hand money to oligarchs and make life easy for them while they crushed the majority of the population. IMF is a dirty word. The KPRF views it as a "tool of Western imperialism."
They're not too happy about the WB and WTO either, but Putin wants entry into the latter (he always adds "on terms acceptable to Russia") and most people trust him as the good Tsar (and he is a pretty good tsar, in fact), so they're less sceptical about it.
Some of the oligarchs aren't too happy about WTO entry either. To be frank, I think Putin is using it as a bargaining chip -- I don't think he views it as very important.
Chris Doss The Russia Journal ------------------
Joe:
How does the ordinary Russian view the IMF, World Bank and future entry into the WTO?