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Pastimes : Kosovo -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: D. Long who wrote (6074)	4/29/1999 10:15:00 PM
From: George Papadopoulos	Respond to of 17770

An orgy of bills with the Russians demanding the biggest and not even saying thank you... Thank you Allbright and Clinton 0200 GMT, 990430 - Russian Ingratitude for IMF Loan Just the Beginning Michel Camdessus, head of the IMF, said that the Russian economic minister's criticisms of the IMF and the international financial community gave him a sense of "unreality." Camdessus is dealing with the old reality; Shapovaliants is dealing with a new reality. Simply put, Camdessus is used to dealing with a Russia grateful for whatever handouts the West was prepared to provide. Shapovaliants is speaking for a Russia that sees itself as vastly underpaid for the services it provides. To begin with, $4.5 billion is a meaningless sum given the scope of Russia's financial problems. Russia, as it never tires of repeating, is not a third-world country. It is a great power that can choose to cause the West a great deal of trouble or, if it wishes, solve a great many problems. Kosovo is an example. Russia could and did contribute massively to Milosevic's sense of confidence in facing down NATO. Russia is also indispensable for ending the crisis. Russia knows this. Russia is also going to present a bill for its services. It expects far more than $4.5 billion and it is not prepared to say thank you. In its view the West is getting its money's worth since the price of a new Cold War, filled with crises like Kosovo, will cost far more than rescuing Russia. That may well be true, but the probability of financial support on the order that Russia needs and demands is not likely to happen. To the extent that financial help is forthcoming, the West should not expect Russia to say thank you. Its view is that it is providing the West with a massive political bailout. It expects the West to match it with an economic bailout of equal proportions.