Pure cotton eve

Russian weaving factories without raw materials - a strong trump card in the hands of Tashkent

The Uzbekistan is not only included in the top ten countries in terms of gold, gas, oil and non -ferrous metal supplies, but perhaps the only economically independent country of the CIS from Russia remains. Unlike Ukraine and Belarus, this state independently provides itself with oil and gas, that is, the main Russian export goods. Russia, or rather, the entire Russian textile industry, on the contrary, demonstrates the full dependence on Uzbek raw materials: from December 1994 to April 1995, when the supply of Uzbek cotton fiber was temporarily discontinued, almost all Russian textile enterprises stopped. It was at the expense of cotton supplies in 1994 of 1995 that Uzbekistan had a positive balance in trade with Russia.

All this allows Uzbekistan to behave anyone free enough at the negotiations of the level. For example, last year, members of the Uzbek delegation without explaining any reasons periodically interrupted negotiations on the conclusion of an intergovernmental agreement on cotton supply. In April, the Russian government managed to agree on the resumption of the supply of this raw material in April. It seems that such a practice becomes traditional for Russian-Uzbek relations. In any case, the intergovernmental agreement on cotton supplies for 1996 has not yet been concluded.

But this time, the Uzbeks somewhat overestimated their forces - the law was blocked by a group of deputies representing the Russian textile lobby.

However, at about the same time, another operation was no less profitable for Uzbek cotton. A small Russian commercial company acquired the entire stake in the privatized enterprise Sibttestilmash, the main manufacturer of cotton re -designing equipment in the CIS. According to representatives of business circles, the new owner of Sibtextilmash is closely connected with Uzbekistan.

Thus, to strengthen its positions in Russia, Uzbekistan has everything you need: its own plant for the production of cotton re -designing equipment and joint ventures, which allow not only to establish stable sales of cotton fiber, but also to refuse in the conclusion of intergovernmental agreements. However, it is not excluded that the process of the occurrence of Uzbek cotton cottages on the Russian textile industry is not completed on this.

Cotton dependence