Chapter 468 Misfortunes never come singly (1)

   Just when Julian Robertson was still complacent about further increasing the position of Russian national debt, he didn't know that Moscow was quietly preparing for the default of national debt at this time.

  The Kremlin, during this period of time, national envoys from all over the country frequently haunted it, including white faces, black faces, and even yellow faces. And the White House where the State Duma (Parliament) is located is also lit up all night and all night. Meetings are held like a horse and a horse, regardless of whether it is day or night.

  In the early morning of September 2, the Kremlin, the presidential residence, the night was deep, but President Yeltsin still did not rest, he was wearing pajamas, walking back and forth in the bedroom uneasily. And in the study next to the side sleeper, there are a few well-dressed staff sitting anxiously staring at the red phone on the desk in the center of the room, which represents the free communication between the heads of state.

  They're waiting for calls, some very important calls.

After the Second World War, the Warsaw Pact led by the Soviet Union and the NATO led by the United States began a confrontation that lasted for half a century. The capitalist countries and the socialist countries formed two camps. China's contact is basically through diplomatic channels, and there is no direct means of dialogue.

Later, the missile crisis in Cuba changed all this. This crisis that almost triggered a world war made all countries realize how necessary the connection between heads of state is, and then set up a special route between Washington and Moscow for the two countries. The call route for the leaders of the United States should be established so that the two sides can eliminate misunderstandings at any time and conduct timely communication on major events.

   Although the former Soviet Union later fell apart, the later Russian Federation, the Commonwealth of Independent States, inherited most of their heritage, and such a call line has also been preserved.

Today, after Russia rejects the economic and financial reform plan requested by the IMF, whether the IMF will continue to provide Russia with more funds to overcome the current difficulties, and if it does not provide it, once the Russian economy collapses, the consequences will be Whether it will bring harm to the security of the Western world has become the focus of attention of all parties.

   It is precisely for this reason that after the Russian Duma announced that it would not implement the IMF's request, special envoys from various governments gathered in Moscow to discuss future plans with senior Kremlin officials.

After more than half a month of discussion, all parties finally had a rough idea, because the Russian government had no intention of compromising with the Western world at all, so the final plan was that the Western countries jointly provide Russia with an emergency interest-free loan. To stabilize the management of Russia's military enterprises and the daily maintenance of weapons. In return, the Russian side must strictly monitor the movement of weapons of mass destruction, especially nuclear weapons, and must not let these things spread out due to social unrest.

  After the preliminary agreement was reached, these special envoys left Moscow one after another. They needed to go back to report to the decision-makers and arrange loans, while Moscow began to prepare for possible future chaos.

"Jingle Bell…"

Just after twelve o'clock, exactly on September 2, the phone rang immediately. After several staff members who had been waiting for a long time looked at each other, one staff member went to the next room to wake up the president. An older staff member answered the phone unhurriedly.

   "Please wait a moment, Mr. President will be here soon!" He pointed the microphone to his ear, and after listening for a while, he replied in fluent English.

Soon, Yeltsin's figure appeared in the study. He first put on reading glasses, looked at several staff members with piercing eyes, and saw that the expressions on the faces of several people were still calm, and they were barely noticeable. Nodding, then calmly sat down on the sofa chair in front of the desk, and then took the microphone from the staff.

As he took over the microphone, several staff members immediately began to work with a clear division of labor. Some were responsible for translation, some took out the shorthand paper and began to quickly record something on it, while the rest of the staff sat around Yeltsin. , discussing something in a low voice.

  Although a preliminary agreement has been reached at present, this kind of secret transaction between countries involves many things, and it is not as simple as simply agreeing to it. The current aides are to provide Yeltsin with advice on how to deal with emergencies, because some variables are likely to occur at this time, and it is the job of these aides to evaluate and recommend whether these variables should be accepted.

"Mr. President, hello!" Yeltsin first greeted Clinton who was far away across the ocean in English, and then changed to Russian, "I wonder what you think about the agreement we reached earlier? "

After a minute, Clinton's voice came from the microphone, "Mr. President, hello. We fully agree with the agreement we have reached before. As long as your arsenal is still under strict monitoring, trust us The funds can arrive at any time!"

"No! No! No!" Yeltsin quickly denied, "Only when your funds arrive first, can we have enough ability to maintain and monitor these munitions. Mr. President, you should also know that if there is not enough salary paid, Whether my ability to control the Kremlin is a question, as you know, the territory of our Russian Federation is so vast."

  Although the United States did not propose unexpected conditions, the presidents of the two sides still competed a little with regard to the time of payment.

Naturally, these have nothing to do with the overall situation. After talking for a long time, the United States finally agreed to allocate this part of the loan to the Russian government in installments as soon as possible, but this part of the loan can only be used to maintain military enterprises and nuclear weapons. Once it is found that it has been misappropriated to other places, the disbursement of loans will be stopped immediately.

  Yeltsin's side naturally accepted it immediately. In fact, the loan is not much, including the European side, which adds up to only a few hundred million U.S. dollars. But for the current Russian government, this money is tantamount to sending charcoal in the snow.

   "By the way, I'm curious, how are you going to deal with the current economic situation?"

   After reaching an agreement, the two leaders who could influence the world exchanged greetings for a long time. At this time, the call was coming to an end. At this time, Clinton in the microphone suddenly asked.

Yeltsin, who was unprepared for this question, was stunned for a moment, then looked at his staff, and several staff quickly exchanged glances, and then began to quickly discuss how to answer. After five minutes, These aides took a piece of paper filled with the main points of the answer and delivered it to Yeltsin.

   "A policy of deflation may be adopted to control the flow and stock of money and increase the export of resources..."

  Holding the paper, Yeltsin read the text according to the script, but it was just written in a hurry, without any structure at all. How could he speak clearly and thoroughly in a short time?

  Originally, these tasks were performed by the Federal Prime Minister. As the head of state, the Russian President has the power to represent Russia in the world, the power to nominate the Prime Minister, and so on. As Prime Minister of Russia, he is mainly responsible for government activities.

In all fairness, if the "shock therapy" is really implemented, today's Russia may not be in the current situation, but because of the incoherence of the executive government, the Russian economy is currently caught in internal and external troubles, and many decisions are very chaotic. Even To the extent of making people laugh and cry.

For example, before Kiriyenko came to power, the Russian government at that time carried out a large-scale privatization of state-owned enterprises. Among them, the Russian Unified Power System Corporation sold 28% of its shares to foreign capital, but later fell out with the IMF , Russia's State Duma has passed a company stock disposal law, stipulating that foreign capital shall not own 25% of the shares of Russian companies.

  This attitude of changing from day to day, and the severe depreciation of the ruble, coupled with the economic crisis spreading to the entire East Asian region, have made capital begin to lose confidence in Moscow, and the consequence is that they withdraw from Russia. The problem caused by the withdrawal of foreign capital is the loss of Russia's foreign exchange reserves and the instability of the ruble's value. For this reason, the Russian government raised interest rates, hoping to retain these capitals, and at the same time, in order to make up for the fiscal deficit over the years, it began to borrow from overseas on a large scale.

Naturally, capital from all over the world has flowed here after seeing the huge yields of Russian government bonds and government credit as a guarantee. Driven by the drive, there are still a lot of capital that does not retreat but advances, and enters the Russian government bond market like moths to the flame.

  So the question Clinton asked, although apparently concerned about Russia's economic situation, was actually asking Yeltsin how he would treat this part of the capital.

Yeltsin, who is not good at economics, didn't notice it. He just frowned and simply repeated the words of his aides. After that, the microphone was silent for a while. Finally, Clinton sighed and said directly: "Mr. President, I have already I understand what you mean. But what I want to ask is, what do you plan to do with those national debts that are about to mature?"

  In fact, Clinton knew very well that the Russian government, which has no financial assistance, has only one way to go, which is to default. But he has to hear this word from the mouth of the head of state of the other party in order to be at ease. Like the other party, at this time he was also surrounded by a large number of staff, who were nervously analyzing every word the other party said, for fear that there would be some variables.

   This time Yeltsin's staff didn't think about it for long, and gave an answer. There were only two words written on a huge piece of white paper: Reorganization.

   Yeltsin told the word to the other party on the other end of the microphone with a blank expression. Clinton in the microphone didn't say anything more.

The so-called debt restructuring is essentially a breach of contract, because it cannot repay the principal and interest of the due national debt, and can only be paid through restructuring in the end, and in most restructuring plans, the repayment of these debts is only the original amount. 10% or 20% of the total. This is equivalent to the disappearance of other parts of the creditor's rights. Of course, it doesn't matter if you don't accept the restructuring plan, and don't even want to pay the 10% or 20%. After all, the debtor is the subject of the state.

  Before this, the Russian government had reached a consensus on this and notified the president and other key personnel. This is why when Clinton asked this question, Yeltsin answered it almost in no time.

  The world, especially those capitals on Wall Street, are still kept in the dark at this time, unaware that a huge disaster has quietly befallen them.

  …

On September 2, the Russian government officially announced that starting today, the ruble will float freely in the foreign exchange market, and at the same time it will postpone the payment of all debts owed by them, and if necessary, these debts will be repaid at some time in the future Reorganize!

  A nuclear bomb exploded on Wall Street!

   Thanks to the book friend lucky_disy for voting for the monthly ticket! Unknowingly, this book has been written for more than a year, and there are still many wonderful things in the future. The author will continue to work hard, and I hope everyone will continue to support~

  

  

  (end of this chapter)