Putin Vows to Repay Debts of Former Soviet UnionRussia "intends to and will pay the debts of the former Soviet Union," said Russian President Vladimir Putin Sunday when seeing off the visiting German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.Twenty-five percent of this year's budget spending will go to debt payment, the president said, adding that experts from both Russia and its creditors of the Paris Club will discuss the amount and the time of the payment. "These are not debts of Russia, these are debts of the former Soviet Union," he emphasized. Neither side hopes to undermine Russia's just-recovering economy and its ability to repay those debts, Putin said. Schroeder, who was going to wrap up his two-day private visit here, said Russia well knows its place in the international community and has an economic capacity to fully repay its debts and implement its international commitments. However, a flexible way is needed here, he added. Schroeder and his wife arrived here Saturday for a two-day private visit, which has been regarded as an opening to a series of Russian-German meetings planned this year. During Schroeder's visit, the two leaders also discussed the issue about Russia's returning of the cultural values moved from Germany in World War II. "The question is whether we would be able to do this," Putin said, noting that the problems should be resolved "in accordance with the laws of Russia and Germany." "One should work insistently and patiently and the essential condition of this work, goodwill, is present on either side," he added. |
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