Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Yeltsin seeks time to pay Soviet debt Date: Tue, 10 Nov 92 15:13:22 EST Message-ID: \SE A \SS (WS) \HD Yeltsin seeks time to pay Soviet debt \BY Patrick Worsnip \CR REUTERS NEWS AGENCY \DT LONDON LONDON - Russian President Boris Yeltsin pressed yesterday for rescheduling of his country's huge debt to the West to cover the last year of the Soviet Union's existence, something Western creditors have been resisting. Mr. Yeltsin, on a visit to Britain, said in a speech at the London Stock Exchange that the cutoff date for debt eligible for rescheduling should be changed from Jan. 1, 1991, to Dec. 8, 1991 - the date the Soviet Union ceased to exist. The change would bring into play a large amount of money borrowed by the Soviet Union in 1991, much of it from Germany, which has been strongly resisting any such shift. Earlier, Mr. Yeltsin and British Prime Minister John Major set the seal on a new closer relationship between their countries with the signing of a full Anglo-Russian treaty, the first since 1766. The treaty, the centerpiece of Mr. Yeltsin's first official visit to Britain, makes strong commitments to Western political and economic values and is intended to lock post-Soviet Russia firmly into the Western democratic camp. The first such agreement between Britain and Russia since the 1766 Treaty of Amity and Commerce during the reign of Russia's Catherine the Great, it sets out cooperation in all aspects of relations between the two countries. Mr. Yeltsin said the treaty would end the period of confrontation between the two countries and to "the whipping up of military hysteria and ideological confrontation." "The new, democratic Russia is building its relations with the outside world on the basis of generally recognized norms of international law and human morality. This is one of the reasons for the spectacular changes that have taken place in Russian-British relations in the past year," he said. On the debt rescheduling, Russian officials have been urging a change in the cutoff date in talks with the "Paris Club" of Western government creditors, but Mr. Yeltsin's reference to it gave it a political high profile. "I am ready to confirm here that Russia is true to its obligations on the external debt of the former U.S.S.R.," the Russian leader told businessmen. "However, we consider that the point of departure in talks on debt servicing must be 8 December 1991 - the last day of the existence of the Soviet Union. The means that the debts of the U.S.S.R. up to 1991 are the subject of a special agreement." The Paris Club is planning a special meeting in mid-November to try to resolve the issue, Western officials say. The debt is now estimated at $70 billion to $80 billion. Mr. Yeltsin also sought Western backing for his view that Russia alone should take on both the debts and the assets of the Soviet Union, something contested by now-independent Ukraine. Noting that of the 15 ex-Soviet republics, only Russia had made any debt repayments, Mr. Yeltsin said: "I intend to seek official endorsement of the situation in which the Russian Federation is the only successor of the U.S.S.R., both as regards its debts and, of course, its assets." Ukraine insists it wants to service its own share of the former Soviet debt - 16.37 percent. While Mr. Yeltsin was clearly appealing for British support for this formula, Britain has until now been unwilling to get involved in the Russia-Ukraine dispute. Mr. Yeltsin warned that short-term rescheduling would not solve the Russian debt problem and appealed for a full-scale restructuring of the debt and other solutions, such as the exchange of debt for equity. The problem would be solved more easily, he said, if the West moved quickly to allow Russia into the world economic community, opened its markets to Russian goods and scrapped technology export controls. Mr. Yeltsin said Russia was eager to learn Western ways of doing business and management techniques but added: "I would like to say in this connection: We in Russia share the expression, so popular in the City [of London], that there is no such thing as a free lunch." This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM