Both Mr Obama and Mr Putin need instruments to combat financial schemes.
Initially the G20 summit, which is due to begin in London tomorrow, was expected to come up with revolutionary solutions. High-ranking Russian and Chinese representatives spoke of the need to replace the dollar with a supranational currency and Russia even tabled it as an official motion. True, this week Presidential Aide Arkady Dvorkovich specified that this was an idea for the future and that our country would be happy to join the general discussion rather than pressing for its own agenda to be adopted.
The actual agenda, largely formed by the US delegation, covers a range of issues that do not seem to affect the foundations of the world financial order and indeed may seem rather boring to an amateur. Without going into detail, however, let us note that all the technical proposals have a common ideological thrust: tighter control of the financial sector. Work in that area is already underway.
The meeting of the 20 finance ministers, which traditionally precedes the London summit, has already decided to create instruments of controlling the credit default swaps (CDS), which are derivative financial instruments whose abuse, in the opinion of many economists, was one of the underlying causes of the global crisis.
"The credit derivatives market was basically unregulated, says Askold Birin, a partner and director of international reporting department with the company FBK. The amount of these papers, which are outside any jurisdiction, exceeds the GDPs not only of the US, but of the whole world".
The introduction of CDS reporting standards would in due course provide an answer to the key question facing the financial system: who owes whom and how much. Thereafter negotiations can begin.
Next to be brought under international financial control may be the offshores. This is not difficult technically, but it calls for political will. The crisis offers a chance for such will to be exercised.
"The managers who have been cheating the financial sector in America by cooking the financial books and inventing complicated instruments to grab huge bonuses are no different from Mr Putin's managers of state-owned businesses," says Alexander Lebedev, chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Reserve Corporation. The former are cheating Mr Obama and the people, and the latter are cheating Mr Putin and the people. So, Mr Putin should have a keen interest in Mr Obama's proposals. This poses a threat to the Russian state-owned businesses."
In Alexander Lebedev's opinion, the country's leadership today needs financial instruments to control the actions of the people around it, but these can only be created through joint work with the Americans and other members of the G20. Thus, the political declarations we were making on the eve of the London summit are giving way to very pragmatic solutions.
By Alexei Ovyan