Russia ministers says Moscow won't drop Iraq debt

Reuters | 4/12/03

[kattracks]

Russia ministers says Moscow won't drop Iraq debt

MOSCOW, April 12 (Reuters) - Russia will not forgive Iraq some $8 billion in Soviet-era debt, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said on Saturday, a day after President Vladimir Putin said Moscow could consider wiping clean Baghdad's slate.

Speaking from Washington where he is taking part in a meeting of finance ministers from the Group of Eight leading industrialised nations, Kudrin said Moscow would not forgive loans granted to Iraq under Saddam Hussein until Russia's own Soviet debts were written off.

"No one has forgiven Russia's debt, regardless of what kind of regime it was and regardless of the country's clout," he told Russian state television.

"For this reason, international law and our membership of the Paris Club of creditor nations will allow us to press for the repayment of our loans."

Russia inherited some $100 billion in Soviet-era debt. It faces a debt repayment peak of $17 billion in 2003.

"We are acting on the basis of the same rules here: we are doing what is being done to us," Kudrin said.

Putin, speaking in St Petersburg at a joint press conference alongside his French and German counterparts, said on Friday Russia had no objection to a U.S. proposal that some or all of Iraq's debts be written off to help rebuild the country.

"On the whole the proposal is understandable and legitimate. In any event, Russia has no objection to such a proposal," Putin told reporters.

Most estimates put Iraqi debts to Russia and France at about $8 billion each, mostly for contracts concluded in the 1980s, but some analysts say Moscow could be owed up to $12 billion.

Germany's Finance Ministry said on Friday Iraq owed Berlin a sum just short of four billion euros ($4.3 billion).

Germany and France, members of the Paris Club alongside Russia, have given a cool response to the proposal tabled by U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowtiz, saying it is to early to discuss debt.

The Paris Club is an informal forum for 19 creditor nations to discuss rescheduling debts to developing countries.

Iraq is thought to face some $142 billion in enforceable debt claims as well as up to $300 billion in reparations outstanding from the invasion of Kuwait.

04/12/03 14:23 ET

[Enterprise]

Hee hee. Imagine the look on the face of the British when the fledgling Republic repudiated all debts to England. Hey Russia, things happen. Deal with it!

[ncountylee]

After WWI the Soviet Union renounced debts incurred by The Russian Empire and made only a token payment in 1972 for WWII debts.

[kaylar]

I think-not 100% sure-that if the Russians had been able to repudiate the debts of the USSR, they would have also lost other things awarded to that country and not Russia : A UN SC seat, a seat at the G-8 (not suure of the exact timeline there) , various pacts and treaties signed with other nations , etc. That's my best guess as to why the Russians didn't repudiate the USSR's debt : The losses would have outweighed the gains. And the bit about the USSR not paying Imperial Russia's debts is accurate, too, I believe, which adds a touch of hypocrisy .

[Enterprise]

LOL! I'll trade you 10 Billion worthless rubles to for 10 Billion worthless Saddams.

[Vets_Husband_and_Wife]

What debate??

Sheesh,.. they are beginning to resemble Baghdad Bob!!

[kattracks]

Here, they can have 8 billion of these.

[CathyRyan]

Thw Axis of Weasels are a bunch of wankers. See what learning a new word a day can do for you vocabulary. He wanks, she wanks(?) I know it does not wank.

[LaGrone]

If Russia sold Iraq shoulder fired anti tank missiles, we won't forgive that either Putin.

[CathyRyan]

Please do not mind me for a while. Someone left a shot of something in the frig. and I drank it...now that I have thought about it for awhile I think it was B151. *snicker* Best vacation I have had in years.

[Kay Soze]

What Debt?

If they can find Saddam - then they can collect.

Illigetimate dictators typically dont honor their debts.

[demosthenes the elder]

As a side-note, UN Secretary-General Annan has decided that the UN will not lift its sanctions on Iraq unless UN inspectors certify that Iraq is clean of WMD - irrespective of the facts that A) the coalition forces will do a much better and faster job than Blix's idiots could ever dream of doing, and B) Those sanctions will hamper the rebuild and revitalization of Iraq.

So, let's see, now...

Germany, France, and Russia (and the UN) all chastised the US, Britain, and Australia (and the rest of the 30+nation coalition) for invading Iraq, on the basis of accusations of mercenary greed, of waging war for oil, of waging a war of aggression against the Iraqi people.
Now that the war is largely over, the coalition wishes to rebuild Iraq swiftly, to ease the suffering of the people, and to erase all vestiges of the Saddam Regime - including debts Saddam racked up for his personal gain.
But... those same Giants of Virtue -France, Germany, and Russia - want to penalize the Iraqi people and force them to pay off debts they had no part in creating.
Hrmn...
Seems to me that I recall those very Titans of Morality being major importers of Iraqi oil.
Seems to me that I recall those same Exemplars of Peace being the main producers and vendors of arms to Saddam.

Hrmn...

Could it be? Could it be that the truth of the matter is that these Paragons of Bullshit were waging APPEASEMENT and COLLABORATION for oil?

And, now, they insist on imposing a new tyranny on the Iraqis as that newly freed people attempt to recover from 35 years of dictatorial oppression and 12 years of UN-imposed punitive sanctions. This, despite their own relatively recent experience with the results of punitively sanctioning a reformation government in a beaten nation (remember the Versailles Treaty of 1918? Remember how that led directly to the rise of the Nazis? I guess they don't, or don't care).
So much for the moral high-ground stance of the "our hands are clean" crowd!

[Walkingfeather]

yep. govt no longer exsists... sorry pal ....you chose...POORLY

[OldFriend]

How many millions did bubba and boris share?

[OldFriend]

Isn't Gergen smarmy and insufferable?

[Darksheare]

They feel that SOMEONE has to pay for the GPS jammers and missiles they sold to Saddam.

[Robert_Paulson2]

so then....
gergen has you gaggin'?

[Kozak]

Now this is really getting funny. Russian wants to get payed for a dept to a non existant entity, the Soviet Union, by a non existant entity, Baathist Iraq.

Perhaps the Iraqi's should pay the debt in Reichsmarks or maybe Confederate dollars.

[sdk7x7]

WAIT A SECOND... WHAT DID IRAQ PAY RUSSIA FOR IN THE FIRST PLACE? I'm sure not WMD, tanks, and jets, right?

Russia, Syria, Saudi Arabia = Axis of Evil

-sdk

[Robert_Paulson2]

"Could it be that the truth of the matter is that these Paragons of Bullshit were waging APPEASEMENT and COLLABORATION for oil?"

---

even more evil... they were all in a working conspiracy whose goal was to overthrow the world's one remaining superpower, and the anglo-brit, semi-superpower (Britain and THEIR former colonies) in their obsessive-compulsive attempt to RE-ASSERT themselves as world powers... over the rest of this decade...

War with FRANCE GERMANY and RUSSIA via emerging surrogate (terrorist) states is on the way... probably more covertly but still a real threat. Turkey has gone over to the dark side... and is very likely no longer an ally, JUST like france...

lines are being drawn... every day. FRANCE GERMANY RUSSIA SYRIA IRAN CHINA and MALAYSIA are very likely NOT our friends.

[Kay Soze]

Excellent Post!

Now they insist that there probably is WMD and are witholding funds till the all clear is signalled.