"There's a lot of information coming from different sources which is implying that there's agreement between G8 countries about support for Madame Lagarde, and if countries which together have more than 60pc of the vote have agreed to support one candidate, then it's more or less a done deal," Mr Marchenko, who heads the National Bank of Kazakhstan, said in an interview with The Daily Telegraph.
Mr Marchenko, an economist educated at the US's Georgetown University, said that G8 countries may have agreed to back the French finance minister, even before the sudden resignation of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who was expected to leave in July to campaign in the French presidential elections.
"Whether this deal was reached several months ago, or whether it was reached in May in Deauville in France, it's pretty clear the deal has been reached," he said, speaking from his offices in Almaty, Kazakhstan's commercial capital. » | Richard Orange, Almaty, Kazakhstan | Thursday, June 09, 2011
