In a major election-year boost for President Boris Yeltsin, the International Monetary Fund on Thursday agreed to lend Russia $10.2 billion to carry forward its free market reforms.

The loan, second only to the fund’s bailout of Mexico last year, is linked to a sweeping plan to proceed with privatization, liberalize trade and other critical steps to move Russia toward a capitalist economy.

Michel Camdessus, the managing director of the fund who met with Yeltsin on Thursday, put the Russian electorate on notice that the IMF would cut off the funding if the Communists came to power and abandoned the reforms.