Eurobondism

The money promised on the expense of "royal debts", the French will have to wait

In 1917, the Bolsheviks acted with tsarist debt obligations in full accordance with the letter and spirit of the French anthem. Having renounced the old world and the monarchy bills, the Council of People's Commissars gave the descendants of the destroyers of the Bastille an occasion to reflect with Russian bonds on the hands of the mortality of all things. Gallah did not help the Galls several years later later a discussion about the excessive radicalism of Marseilles. The train of the world revolution took away their money, it seemed forever. Therefore, until recently, Russian loan bonds were quoted in the Parisian flea market as a purely bukinistic product - three francs a piece, regardless of the face value.

But the government of democratic Russia wanted to make new debts. And at first, nothing foreshadowed that this would need to repay the royal debts. In the end, even the Bolsheviks themselves did without this, who managed to take loans from the West worth more than $ 100 billion. Foreigners also honestly gave money to the Russian Ministry of Finance: through the purchase of GKO, bonds of internal currency loan and, however, the last, most fashionable borrowing tool - non -cash bonds for legal and individuals called “Eurobonds” demanded from the Government of Viktor Chernomyrdin special assurances in fidelity to his debt obligations. Since they were not intended for the distribution among the “heart friends” of our Fatherland, which know the rather high reliability of Russian public securities, but for touring in international markets.

Such assurances were given during the November presentations, when Vladimir Potanin, Alexander Livshits and the First Deputy Minister of Finance Andrei Vavilov campaigned for all progressive humanity for the Eurobonds. As a result, the placement of these papers brought tremendous success and a billion dollars. The trade in Eurobonds was very brisk everywhere except France. The government Alena Juppe decided to slightly spread Moscow. The French banks were given recommendations not to buy Eurobonds until a dispute about royal duty is settled.

Economic interest, however, took his own.

In third countries, the French bankers bought up against all and all sorts of advice a number of anathematous Eurobonds. After all, the financier does not care at all what decrees Lenin signed in Smolny. It is enough for him to know that Livshits regularly transfer money to repay modern papers. Everything is relatively calm in the Kremlin, there is no reason to doubt that on Russian Eurobonds it will be possible to make good profit - much larger than the papers of the developed countries of the West.

Being undoubtedly aware of this organic property of financial nature, Chernomyrdin still decided to proceed from another, no less popular truth: you can’t spoil the porridge with oil. Well, Eurobonds will not hurt if they are traded in French squares. However, the price that the prime minister agreed to pay for this seemed excessive at first glance. Although $ 400 million is less than the Association of Russian Loan bond holders, which recently sent press releases from its headquarters in Paris not to buy Russian Eurobonds. And less than at the first stage of negotiations, the French government required.

Viktor Stepanovich had to bargain in Paris. Even a few hours before the signing ceremony in the project that worked on the sidelines of the journalists, the Memorandum project “On mutual understanding between the governments of the Russian Federation and France upon the final settlement of mutual claims that arose in the period until May 9, 1945” the amount of compensation was still missed. The price managed to knock down a billion dollars first to 500-600, and then 400 million. This became possible thanks to the test of mutual claims: Russia, without looking, forgave France the “gold of Kolchak”, the issuance of which Paris refused to the people's commissars at one time, and the Eliseis Palace agreed to pick up the lion's share of the debt on the royal loan.

As the Juppe government will pay with deceived depositors: whether 93 tons of “Kolchakovsky” gold will dig from somewhere or climb into the state budget-this is now his problem. Perhaps the French cabinet believes in those expert estimates according to which most of the 30 million bonds printed in 1880-1917 were torn by their holders in a minute of despair.

Nevertheless, the first thought after the signing of the Memorandum was: where will the country of starving teachers and miners take $ 400 million to restore with the Parisian Bukinists? For clarifications, “Results” turned to the First Deputy Minister of Economics Vladimir Panskov, who began to deal with the problem of royal debts before all in the current government. It turns out that the payment of the amount that the Russian prime minister legitimized by his signature is an archraged prospect, as another participant in this whole story would say. Panskov believes that next year it is too early to start paying anything. In small portions, funds can go since 1998. And the last dollar will most likely be transferred in the next millennium. Such a pace will be quite capable of Russia. Moreover, all these years you can place Eurobonds. Next year, it is planned to throw them in the amount of up to two billion dollars. So when asked where to get the money for the French, the answer is already ready - in France.