The former government of Iceland, under Geir H. Haarde, begged for and then rejected the offer of a multi-billion dollar loan from Russia, the Russian ambassador to Iceland said today.
In an interview with Netvarpid.is, Ambassador Victor I. Tatarintsev said that Russia had been the first country to offer Iceland help with its financial crisis after the then government asked for assistance. At the time, the talk was of a four billion euro loan from Moscow.
“Your previous government didn’t want the loan and then went instead to the IMF,” Tatarintsev said.
The ambassador continued by saying that if the Icelandic government had accepted the loan it initially asked for from Russia, the country’s situation today would be entirely different. In his personal opinion, he says the kreppa (recession) would not have been so severe.
In the interview, Tatarintsev said that the USA, the Nordic countries and other supposed close allies of Iceland had turned their backs on the country. On the other hand, the Russians did not; and instead offered their help.
The Central Bank of Iceland sent out a press release detailing a loan from Russia to Iceland on 7th October last year. The message was, however, rescinded the same day and replaced with a vaguer promise of loan negotiations to follow.
The Russian media reported in June that the country’s deputy finance minister was not sure that Iceland would accept a loan from the Russians before next year even if a loan contract is agreed. The parties are now talking about a considerably lower loan amount than last October, probably around USD 500 million.
Russian loan would be a better choice for Iceland than the IMF trap.
Great! What does the Russian PM, also known as the Lilliputianesque martial artist, recommend? How about some more flights over Iceland’s air space, would that be the way to communicate with an unresponsive Iceland public, or perhaps another assassination of a Russian journalist who might be probing the antics of the Russian state!
I didn’t realise crack was such a problem in Russia.
Seriously, anyone able to confirm that Iceland walked away from a firm loan offer? I thought that Iceland was desperate to get the Russian loan and avoid the IMF one, but the Ruskies backed away from it.
Oh, my….!
Since when second-rate ambassador is in charge of finance matters? Why second-rate? Because third-rate ones are sent to Zimbabve or even more unknown places.
PS. Russia is not in the position to loan 4 billions. 500 millions – kannsky but so far the government has other priorities.
If Iceland needs money – it should talk to China.
It’s this sort of news that makes it difficult to disengage from Icelandic affairs.
There was a misunderstanding. ‘Loan’ means “a take-over offer” in Russian. Hadn’t we enough cash ? No problem, there are a lot of businessmen of whom State owe their debts. Or they would have been worthless…. ????
Why would Victor Tatarintsev lie about this,
i am sure this is correct, if Haarde and co say it isn’t true i believe the Russians, who knows why Davíð Oddson refused the loan,
may be some deal between the Icelandic gov and EU, you push a IceSave loan deal trough parliament and we give you guys a nice slice of the pie as a reward, talk to our friends at IMF, they will take over from this point,
the IceSave deal will of course guarantee Iceland’s entry into the EU, we need it,
if you look at the people and organizations involved and their purpose and history, this explanation is not unbelievable.
“If Iceland needs money – it should talk to China.”
We are told we need money to build currency reserves we will not be allowed to use,
why do we need money we can not use ?
the only loan we have gotten and used so far is from Faraoe islands, the $850m from IMF is sitting in a bank account in New York, and i dont expect Icelanders will ever see a cent of that money, but we get to pay interests on it,
The right thing to do now is to tell the IMF to leave the country, tear up the IceSave deal, leave NATO, why is Iceland in NATO, we dont have a Army,
we have nothing to do with USA anymore, why should we be a part of a defense system that would never defend us ?, it makes no sense,
time to get rid of rubbish we dont need, old and new.
Loans are far to be a viable long term solution for Iceland !
Especially with the Icelandic Krona being the third worst performing currency this year and a foreign debt to more than five times the actual GDP !
If the former government really turn around the russian loan that’s maybe one of the only good thing they have done !
Alexander,
There really seem to be russian diplomats from the first (very competent people) , second (bullies) and third (idiots) league. I think Russia sends very competent diplomats to countries which are considered as important partners, bullies to countries which it wants to dominate and idiots to the rest.
For instance the russian ambassador in the Netherlands is an extremely knowledgeable, polite and esteemed man who even speaks perfect dutch and is very much apppreciated.
Recently the russian ambassador in Moldova brutally threatened the moldovans at a press conference that they would freeze to death in winter if they would not please Russia and would try to seek more contact with the west.
I do not remember the guy’s name but his nickname is something like: ‘the man of 5 billion.’
He earned it in the early 90-ies when he was ambassador in the Czech Republic. When the czechs applied for membership of Nato and the EU he made similar threats to them .
The czechs politely thanked him for his clear words.
One week later the czechs cancelled ALL deals with russian gas and oil companies: in stead they started buying this from Norway. It is estimated that Russia lost some 5 billion USD because of this.
KGB doesn’t let $$ fly away for nothing,except thieving of course.KGB can’t be a friend or a helping one.But what they can do very well is to strangle you inside theirs hugs.
Most of the western people have no idea what KGB is and their opinion is totally Hollywood and CNN media biased instead of reading some books.
FSB is its (public) name now, are people aware of ? :D
Axel. China wouldn’t be interested in building someones currency reserves. But they lack a lot of stuff for their internal development. So they might be very interested in investing in Iceland – as Iceland has huge resources for many things China needs.
no comments :-)
Not exactly. In 1991 KGB was divided in to two agencies – FSB and SVR. FSB – Federal Security Service (like FBI) and Foreign Intelligence Service (like CIA). Both pretty harmless (or useless if you wish). Just for a record.
>the IceSave deal will of course guarantee Iceland’s entry into the EU, we need it,
You really surprise we Axel. Of course it wont.
There will be no special deals from EU — its against the constitution of englargement. But if so it will show how desperate EU commission is to get Iceland in.
>“If Iceland needs money – it should talk to China.”
Já — after Asian Financial crisis even more than usual need for positive savings rate in countrys there came and that is why they have so much wealth — because they have been saving it.
China will be interested in Iceland oil and gas, and it position for shipping as arctic warms and we become very important waters for shipping route via arctic.
Its currency RMB/CNY is about to become strongest in world. By bye US dollar. Bye bye Euro. As reserve currency of world.
RMB will become freely exchangeable soon enough.
“he IceSave deal will of course guarantee Iceland’s entry into the EU, we need it,”
It was meant to sound like one crook talking to another, meaning the EU needs Iceland,
we don’t need the Icesave deal or the bl**dy EU
nothing will ever change my mind on that.
Russian Gov might possibly have wanted a little more than just interests, or there was never any real feel for sealing that deal.
anyway I know some people think hitting those former colonial powers Britain and Holland with ICESAVE was a great job, Britain having harvested Iceland’s fishing stocks for century’s with Denmark’s (Iceland’s former Colonial master) blessing.
1-0 for us little guy’s, Go Iceland!! :D