Russian rouble can become convertible in five years, Soros

Well-known American financier and philanthropist George Soros believes that if the Russian government would desire the rouble could become convertible by 2008. He said this on Monday at a news conference in Moscow.

The task of making the Russian rouble a freely convertible currency in the course of the coming five years was set by Russian President Vladimir Putin in May in his state-of-the-nation address to the Federal Assembly.

At the same time, Soros said nothing about a possible correlation of the world's hard currencies till the end of the year.

I know what an exchange rate of the dollar to euro will be and therefore cannot disclose this information, Soros said.