The Washington-based fund had previously been criticized for its optimistic assessment of Russia’s economy The Russian economy has been growing faster than many economists projected, IMF First Deputy Managing Director Gita Gopinath admitted on Monday in an interview with Foreign Policy magazine.

[unable to retrieve full-text content]

The country’s forces now “hold the strategic initiative along the entire line of contact,” Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu has said The Russian military is making advances at multiple locations along the frontline in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), according to a daily press briefing of the country’s Defense Ministry released on Friday.