Vera Kuznetsova, Astana
Vladimir Putin is not going to withdraw his roubles from Sberbank and VTB.
The world financial crisis has not spared the member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). The keynote of yesterday's meeting of the SCO heads of state in Astana was "No to the crisis".
The tone of the discussion was set by the guiding spirit of the SCO, the Premier of the State Council of China, Wen Jiabao: "China is closely watching the crisis, he said. The crisis does affect us, and we are vigorously counteracting it. We are taking resolute measures to minimise its consequences."
The Chinese Premier gave an honest forecast for the near term: "The world financial crisis will grow; therefore we should act together, partly by tightening financial control."
Wen Jiabao mentioned the responsibility of those whom China had lured into the SCO by promising billions in credit at the dawn of the organisation: "China will not retract its credit policy but will earnestly continue the practice of easy-term loans for SCO member countries."
Kazakhstan's Prime Minister Karim Masimov proposed an early meeting in Alma-Ata of the Finance Ministers of SCO countries. Mongolian Prime Minister Sanj Bayar (whose country has observer status with the SCO) literally demanded that "an emergency anti-crisis fund" be created not only for the members of the organisation but also for observer countries.
In addition to Mongolia, observers include India, Iran and Pakistan.
The representative from Afghanistan, attending as a guest, never used the word "crisis". He simply asked his colleagues to restore the Great Silk Road.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was not thinking about specific loans as he walked to the podium. Instead, he offered a geopolitical perspective: "The world has entered a transitional period in its development, he said. A multi-polar structure is evolving. New economic growth centres are emerging... a tectonic shift in the structure of international relations is witnessed by the current turmoil in the global world economy and finances. To solve the problem, Russia intends to participate in the changing the global financial architecture."
Mr Putin called on collective organisations, the SCO in particular, to combine their economic strategies. "That is a guarantee of a more equitable and stable democratic system," he explained.
However, the broad sweep of the Russian Prime Minister's proposals did not wash with everyone. The crisis is a more immediate concern, so during a one-on-one conversation with Vladimir Putin, the Mongolian Prime Minister continued to lament his own country's woes. He spoke about the contradictory internal political struggle that preceded the formation of a coalition government.
"Time has been lost, opportunities have been missed, and to cap it all the financial system has developed a crack," he said, probably as a prelude to asking Moscow for a loan. It was obvious that Mongolia needed Russian money.
Vladimir Putin is said to have behaved stoically during the talks. When asked by a Vremya Novostei correspondent whether Russia intended to meet the requests of many SCO countries for loans from Russia and China, the Russian Prime Minister was cagy: "The People's Republic of China declared its commitment to massive easy-term credit earlier and it is not pulling back. Russia will also support many projects in the SCO framework. And it too will not pull back."
In his opinion, "when traditional markets are closed, internal demand must stimulate development. And if efforts are pooled, even if only within the SCO, these incentives will increase."
However, Mr Putin demonstrated that in spite of SCO oriented prospects, his primary concern was the Russian economy. "Why did I fly to Astana at 4 am? Yesterday, with my colleagues in the Cabinet, I worked on additional measures to support the national industry," he informed those present. "Tomorrow (on Friday) we should adopt an additional package of measures concerning the national industry."
Mr Putin still considers it necessary to foster confidence in the banking sector and promised to "push through the financial clogs to make sure money reaches the consumer." When asked in what currency he kept his savings, the Prime Minister answered, in roubles at Sberbank and VTB. He said he would not jump from one currency to another because it made no sense in his opinion. He has not taken the time to calculate any possible losses.
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Prime Minister Vladimir Putin confirmed that Russia would like to buy part of Oman's share in the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), Interfax Agency reports.
"As for CPC shares, I'm not sure at this point, but I believe that we may have already made the purchase. I just need to confirm this," Mr Putin said during a meeting with Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev in Astana on Thursday.
The question of buying out Oman's share in the CPC was raised by the President of Kazakhstan. "Oman is selling its part of the CPC. I don't think we should allow anyone else to take it," Mr Nazarbayev said. "We won't," Mr Putin confirmed.
Oman's share in the project is 7%. Last spring Oman decided to withdraw from the CPC because it considers it ineffective. It evaluated its share at $700 million. The Government shareholders in the CPC - Russia and Kazakhstan - have the right of first refusal with regard to Oman's share. If both countries claim Oman's 7% stake, it would be divided 4% for Russia and 3% for Kazakhstan. As was announced in mid-September, the British BP, which indirectly controls 6.6% of the project, may also withdraw from the CPC. The shares of the Governments that founded the CPC are distributed as follows: Russia - 24% (the block of shares was put under Transneft management in April 2007), Kazakhstan - 19% and Oman - 7%. The private oil companies taking part in the consortium are: Chevron Caspian Pipeline Consortium Company - 15%, LUKARCO B.V. - 12.5%, Rosneft-Shell Caspian Ventures Limited - 7.5%, Mobil Caspian Pipeline Company - 7.5%, Agip International (N.A.) N.V. - 2%, BG Overseas Holding Limited - 2%, Kazakhstan Pipeline Ventures LLC - 1.75% and Oryx Caspian Pipeline LLC - 1.75%.