USSR Creditors Ask Moody’s Rating Agency To See Reason

Moody’s rating agency is determined to raise Russia’s rating

The creditors of Russia have caused a commotion. They panicked about Moody’s confirmed intention to raise Russia’s rating by adding two points to it. The creditors sent a letter to the rating agency asking the experts not to make a hasty decision. This was reported by NEWS.Ru website today.

The creditors expressed their concern that the Russian government might refuse the transformation of the USSR’s foreign debt if the agency raises the rating. The foreign debt of the former Soviet Union makes up about six billion dollars. This is a good reason for the creditors to worry. They are trying to bring Moody’s specialists to reason. They keep saying that it would be better to wait a while with for a new rating or Russia. They do want Russia to transform the debt of the former USSR into standard eurobonds, as Russia promised before.

This distrust of the creditors can be explained with the fact that Russian governmental officials do not actually want to keep their promise.

Creditors claim that, at first, Russia promised to issue the eurobonds in April of 2002. However, despite the assurance on the part of the Russian government, Russia stated that the transformation of the debt wil bee at the end of September. After that, the Russian Finance Ministry promised the creditors that the debt was about to be transformed into eurobonds. Nothing has been changed. Things are right where they started. Creditors fear that the Russian Finance Ministry is running this policy deliberately. They hope that a threat will force the Russian government to think it over again and start the transformation of the Soviet debt very soon.

However, not all analysts are sure that the problems regarding the foreign debt of the former Soviet Union will affect Moody’s intention to raise the rating. A spokesman for the agency said that Moody’s will take the argument into consideration, although it was not going to be a prime argument for their decision.

After the recent hostage-taking incident in Moscow, some specialists thought that Moody’s would probably delay their decision about Russia. However, after the successful siege of the music theater, Moody’s representatives confirmed their intention to make Russia closer to the “family of civilized countries.” Some analysts say that there might have been certain decisions made in the world as far as Russia is concerned. Most likely, neither human rights activists nor criticism of the foreign press are able to change it.

Kira Poznakhirko PRAVDA.Ru

Translated by Dmitry Sudakov