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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (21107)	12/22/2003 7:31:47 PM
From: Brian Sullivan	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 793843

Putin caves in on Iraq. Didn't Russia default on all of it's international debt a few years back? Russia Offers to Forgive 65% of Iraq's Debt By ERIN E. ARVEDLUND nytimes.com MOSCOW, Dec. 22 — Russia offered today to forgive about two-thirds of Iraq's $8 billion in debt, after officials of the Iraqi Governing Council signaled that Moscow would have the chance to revive oil contracts signed under Saddam Hussein, its ousted leader. Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the head of the American-backed Governing Council, said talks with President Vladimir V. Putin led Russia to propose wiping away 65 percent of Iraq's Soviet-era debts to Moscow in return for Baghdad's favorable treatment of Russian oil and other companies. "We received a generous promise to write off the debt, or at least a part of it," Mr. Hakim told reporters after meeting Mr. Putin for the first time in the Kremlin. In return, he said, "we will be open to all Russian companies." Jalal Talabani, a Kurdish leader and a member of the Iraqi delegation, said, "Russia said it is willing to consider the write-off of the rest of the debt if it received beneficial treatment in terms of oil contracts." As one of Iraq's biggest creditors, Russia is owed $8 billion in principal and interest and wants the write-off negotiated through the Paris Club, a group of 19 creditor nations that negotiates debt. "Iraq is a free market," Mr. Talabani said. "All companies and countries will be considered." But the Iraqis singled out Russian oil giant Lukoil for a meeting on Monday, as the No. 2 Russian oil producer tries to win back rights to the oil-rich West Qurna field in Iraq. Lukoil's chairman, Vagit Alekperov, told the Interfax news agency that the high-profile Iraq visit "makes us certain that talks will begin soon with the Iraqi oil minister and will be successful." Lukoil officials are heading back to Iraq on Dec. 29, when a delegation including the president of Lukoil's overseas operations, Andrey Kuzyaev, and the Iraqi oil minister, Bahr al-Ulum, will hold negotiations in Baghdad, focusing on the West Qurna project. The original agreement on exploring the field, later scrapped by Mr. Hussein just prior to the American-led invasion of Iraq, was signed in March 1997. The United States is seeking international support to reduce Iraq's roughly $125 billion in debt, despite the Defense Department's recent exclusion of such countries as France, Germany and Russia, which opposed the war in Iraq, as prime bidders on reconstruction contracts. President Bush has since said he is open to discussing access to other contracts. Iraq sits on the world's second-largest oil reserves. The country currently produces roughly 2.5 million barrels a day, Mr. Talabani said, and he estimated Iraq could return to 4 million barrels a day by the beginning of 2005.

To: LindyBill who wrote (21107)	12/23/2003 4:57:12 AM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793843

That was a good analytical approach to the gay marriage issue, I thought. I take issue with his conclusion, though. <<Yet that small stipulation seems to have succeeded, for the most part, in keeping marriage from becoming a mere contractual convenience. >> It may seem that way to the half of the population that sees marriage as a religious matter. It doesn't work for those who see it as a legal matter. There are lots and lots of marriages that are basically contractual conveniences. They are just not that conspicuous, particularly in traditional circles. I think the writer brushes it off too lightly. What the analysis does support, seems to me, is the solution of making "marriage" a religious construct and having an independent legal construct.