[1][6] Marchenko gave a speech on "The development of Kazakhstan in the period of Globalization and the growth of financial markets" on 15 March 2006 at the Hong Kong Theatre, Clement House, Aldwych, for the London School of Economics.

[6] In 2011 Grigori Marchenko was put forward as a possible head of the International Monetary Fund by the leaders of governments of the Commonwealth of Independent States association of former Soviet republics.

[8][9] He first heard of his candidacy by text message on the day it was agreed at a meeting of the Commonwealth of Independent States.

at a conference in Washington D.C. that the Open Society Institute and the Center for Strategic and International Studies sponsored.

[11] Marchenko specifically took issue with the allegations that the Kazakhstan Government established the fund on a questionable legal basis, citing 30 amendments to several laws passed by the Parliament regarding financial accountability, the fact that President Nursultan Nazarbayev has complete control over the fund, calling it "simply wrong" that the book refers to "the Russian Black Sea port of Ceyhan" which is in fact a Turkish port, but not, as asserted in the book, a Russian port.

After the meeting there were rumours in the media that Putin had offered Marchenko a job in the Central Bank of the Russian Federation.