Paul Craig Roberts and Michael Hudson — Russia’s Weakness Is Its Economic Policy

According to various reports, the Russian government is reconsidering the neoliberal policy that has served Russia so badly since the collapse of the Soviet Union. If Russia had adopted an intelligent economic policy, Russia’s economy would be far ahead of where it stands today. It would have avoided most of the capital flight to the West by relying on self-finance.…

Paul Craig Roberts Blog
Russia’s Weakness Is Its Economic Policy — Paul Craig Roberts and Michael Hudson

Pepe Escobar — Russia’s ultimate lethal weapon

Let’s start with some classic Russian politics. Finance Minister Anton Siluanov is drawing up Russia's economic strategy for 2016, including the government budget. Siluanov – essentially a liberal, in favor of foreign investment - will present his proposals to the Kremlin by the end of this month.

So far, nothing spectacular. But then, a few days ago, Kommersant leaked that Russia's Security Council asked presidential aide Sergei Glazyev to come up with a separate economic strategy, to be presented to the council this week. This is not exactly a novelty, as the Russian Security Council in the past has asked small strategy groups for their economic assessment.

The Security Council is led by Nikolai Patrushev, the former head of the Federal Security Service. He and Siluanov are not exactly on the same wavelength.
And here’s where the plot thickens. Glazyev, a brilliant economist, is a Russian nationalist – sanctioned personally by the US.

Glazyev is arguably going no holds barred. He is in favor of barring Russian companies from using foreign currency (which makes sense); taxing the conversion of rubles to foreign currencies (same); banning foreign loans to Russian firms (depending if they are not in US dollars or euro); and – the smoking gun - requiring Russian companies that have Western loans to default.….

RT
Russia’s ultimate lethal weapon
Pepe Escobar

Transcript of exclusive interview Russian Finance Minister Siluanov is giving on CNBC Squawk Box tomorrow morning.

I just received this via email. It's the transcript of an interview that Russian Finance Minister, Anton Siluanov is giving with the clowns on CNBC Squawk Box tomorrow morning.

Interesting where he says Russia would give financial aid to Greece. Break up the Eurozone. Good idea!

If you read the whole thing you'll see that this guy's head is totally in a gold standard/fixed FX mentality. Will constrain Russia forever.

CNBC EXCLUSIVE TRANSCRIPT: ANTON SILUANOV, RUSSIAN FINANCE MINISTER

Foulds, Hugo (NBCUniversal) (Hugo.Foulds@cnbc.com) 

PRESS RELEASE 

CNBC EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: ANTON SILUANOV, RUSSIAN FINANCE MINISTER 

Russia would consider giving financial help to debt-ridden Greece 

WHEN: CNBC EXCLUSIVE, today Thursday, 29^th January 2015. 

Following is highlights of the unofficial transcript of a CNBC exclusive interview with Anton Siluanov, Russian Minister of Finance with CNBC’s Geoff Cutmore. 

Full interview will be played out in Europe tomorrow morning on CNBC’s Squawk Box. All references must be sourced to a ‘CNBC exclusive interview’. 

CNBC’s Geoff Cutmore (GC): Even as we’re speaking to each other, we know that there’s a meeting going on in Brussels they’re talking about potentially another round of sanctions. Can I ask you, how worried are you that another round of sanctions at this stage, would cause a crisis in confidence in the Russian economy? 

Anton Siluanov (AS):  Well it has always been our official position that we are against any form of capital or trade controls  - and of course any sanctions are harmful because they cause a slowdown in the global economy. And the sanctions that have already been imposed against Russia did negatively affect us. However, Russia companies have adjusted, and Russia’s balance of payments have adjusted, the rouble weakened, and as you might be able to see life still goes on here and we just keep on living. 

Our estimate is that last year the Russian economy experienced two kinds of external shocks - one is from oil prices and another from sanctions. The cumulative effect of those shocks is around 200 billion US dollars - maybe a little more, but the main, major influence was the fall in oil prices. Our estimate on the sanctions is a roughly 40-50 billion shortage of capital, but again the main driver of this slowdown is the oil price.