The mayor replaced the prime minister

And Kasyanov promised the French an export agency

Mikhail Kasyanov yesterday in Paris told representatives of French business circles that the Russian government intends to support exports and imports even after the reform of Vnesheconombank. As a source in Mr. Kasyanov’s office told the Vremya Novostei newspaper, this issue was of great interest to businessmen and representatives of the French export agency COFACE. The Prime Minister said that the White House is ready to create a specialized export-import agency on the basis of the government Roseximbank. Mr. Kasyanov explained that with the reform of VEB, the functions of debt servicing will go to the debt agency, the banking business will move to VTB, and the government considers it logical to transfer the tasks of supporting exports and imports to Roseximbank, which now, despite its name, does not actually function as an exim bank.

In addition to negotiations with business circles, yesterday Mikhail Kasyanov spoke at a session of the General Assembly of the International Bureau of Exhibitions. Since the presentation of Moscow as a candidate to host EXPO 2010 took place at a rather sad moment for Russia and the tragedy of the plane collision affected the mood of Russians, the presentation was not very impressive. Even the prepared Russian beauties felt quite constrained. And after the presentation, Mikhail Kasyanov did not even go to the traditional press conference, going to a meeting with the future Prime Minister of France Jean-Pierre Raffarin. At the press conference, Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov tried to replace the prime minister. He spoke pathetically and in general terms about the delights of the Russian capital. But with regard to the financial support of EXPO 2010, he had to answer quite specifically. The authorities are ready to allocate $2 billion: one billion from Moscow, the other from the federal government. Mr. Luzhkov set the total volume of proposed investments at $10 billion (the Chinese are threatening to respond with a hundred billion). And yet, even the 8 billion that, in addition to budget money, the Moscow mayor plans to use to build the EXPO 2010 infrastructure are absolutely not guaranteed. And, of course, against this background, Russia looks poorer than the Chinese. This is the opinion of both French experts and members of the Russian delegation who arrived together with Mikhail Kasyanov for the presentation of Moscow at the session of the General Assembly of the International Bureau of Exhibitions.

Vera KUZNETSOVA, Paris