And the debt continues...

MOSCOW (Thomson Financial) - Russian gas monopoly Gazprom and Ukraine have failed to reach a deal on resolving a dispute over debts owed by Kiev for Russian natural gas, but talks will continue, news agencies reported.

'The meeting is finished. Talks will continue,' Gapzrom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov was quoted as saying by Interfax and RIA Novosti news agencies after talks between Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and Gazprom chief Alexei Miller.

On February 12, President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Yushchenko announced a deal in principle to avert a threatened gas cut-off over Kiev's debts, but the agreement has yet to be finalised.


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The attempt to resolve the Ukrainian debt has failed. Yet again Russia is having to deal with money that is in debt to them. Here in the US we are generally the ones in debt, but apparently everyone owes Russia money. Russia must be at least fairly stable economically if they don't have to resolve these debts immediately. Whether or not these debts will be resolved in the near future has yet to be seen, but as of current Ukraine still owes money to Russia.

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Russia's got the money!

MOSCOW — Iraq’s foreign minister won a long-sought agreement on Monday to write off most of Iraq’s $12.9 billion in debt to Russia, much of it dating to before the first gulf war when Saddam Hussein government purchased Soviet weapons.


Russia had, in principle, agreed to write off the debt as far back as 2004 but had been dragging its feet hoping for assurances that the United States-backed government in Baghdad would honor a large Russian oil claim, also dating to the Hussein era.


On Monday, Iraq’s foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, offered no public guarantees. Russian officials said they had won an assurance of favorable treatment, at least. In exchange, Russia will write off all but $900 million of the debt. Separately, Russia agreed to invest $4 billion in Iraq, including the Iraqi oil industry.

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I don't know if it's just me, but 12.9 billion dollars seems like a lot. I know that some of this money is from questionable weapon purchases from sometime ago, but it does say something about Russia and their progression to forgive Iraq of these debts. Some might see Russia in a more positive light now that they know that they are willing to forgive a struggling country of large debts. Although it put them in a positive light this act could possibly hurt their economy. A substantial loss is not good for anyone's economy, and who knows how this will affect Russia.

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