Several respectable Russian and Western newspapers shared this opinion Monday claiming that the drop of Russia’s two major stock indexes last week could be comparable to the level reported in 1997. However, the Russian government persistently continues to deny all rumors about the ruble devaluation. Central Bank and government officials promised over the weekend that there would be no sudden devaluation of the national currency.

mojne da vam neki pijani Rus zavrne slavinu i nema gasa

Russia’s economy nears its collapse?
Front page / Russia / Economics

27.10.2008    Source: Pravda.Ru    
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Mandelson Says Russia Riding High in Crisis
30 October 2008
Russia is well-equipped to withstand the financial crisis, and foreign investors are not jumping ship, British Business Secretary Peter Mandelson said Wednesday as he wrapped up a four-day visit that showed significant improvement in London's troubled ties with Moscow.

Thanks to its oil- and gas-financed surplus, "Russia is better placed than others to weather the storm," Mandelson told reporters, adding that he felt common sense prevailed in the government.

Mandelson also said he hoped that "my visit will intensify a thawing of the difficult political relationship that we have experienced."

In the first visit of a British Cabinet member since February 2007, Mandelson on Tuesday held talks with First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov and Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, with whom he revived a steering committee for Russian-British investment that he said had been defunct for six years.

In a softening of its rhetoric, the Foreign Ministry said after Mandelson met Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday that both countries needed to overcome their political differences.

"We could not have wished for a better reception," Mandelson said of his Moscow visit.

Russian-British relations have been in a downward spiral unseen since the end of the Cold War after the 2006 poisoning death of former security services agent Alexander Litvinenko, the forced closure of British Council offices in Russia and London's tough stance on Russia's actions in the brief Georgia war.

Mandelson said there were no signs of a drop in confidence among his country's business community. "There is no sign that U.K. investors are pulling back from Russia or downscaling their plans," he said.

Rather, he argued, both countries are being driven together by a common need to fight the crisis, which threatens to damage Britain's position as a top source of foreign direct investment in Russia.

"The importance of those investment relations is only increased by the current crisis," he said.

Both countries will embark on high-level cooperation to solve the situation, with Prime Minister Gordon Brown and President Dmitry Medvedev meeting at an anti-crisis summit in Washington in the upcoming weeks.

Citiranje glasila Komunistichke partije RF-a.