Chubais called to help with IMF

BORIS YELTSIN'S unpopular economics adviser, chief privatiser, and election mastermind, Anatoly Chubais, has returned to the Kremlin to help Russia out of its fiscal crisis. Less than four months after being fired in a government clear-out, Mr Chubais was yesterday appointed as the president's representative in crucial negotiations with the International Monetary Fund.

Mr Chubais was called in to the rescue at the behest of a group of eight Moscow business moguls.

An IMF delegation is due in Moscow next week to discuss an additional aid package rumoured at $10bn.