Having written off 20 billion dollars to Africa, Russia will receive much more
During the Russian-African summit in Sochi, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the cancellation of debt of $ 20 billion to countries on the African continent. Naturally, this news "Stirred up" the Internet community. Indeed, these funds, according to the majority, could be spent on the development of their own economics. So why did the president make such an “unpopular” decision, and what does our country expect to receive in return?
The thing is that the criticism that followed the announcement of the above-mentioned news is completely groundless. This debt has accumulated since the days of the USSR and was declared hopeless in the last decade. The amount written off by Russia of $ 20 billion, in fact, is only a figure, not real money.
Thus, our country not only lost nothing, but managed to gain something. Only at the summit in Sochi, contracts worth about 1 trillion rubles were signed. Africa is of great interest to our country as a market and supplier of valuable resources.
In addition, for this continent, a struggle has long been waged between China, Russia, Europe and the United States. Africa, along with the Arctic, is considered the last "human pantry." And the fact that 40 presidents of this region gathered at the summit in Sochi indicates a significant strengthening of the position of our country.
And finally, Russia simply didn’t have the opportunity not to write off the debt, since we are a member of the Paris Club. Our country joined the organization in 1997, which allowed us to restructure our own debt, but obliged us to write off debt to the poorest states.
However, unlike the USSR, which expanded its geopolitical influence, pumping Africa loans, we managed to strengthen our position on the continent by writing off old "bad" debts without issuing new loans. In addition, this is a common global practice. For example, the United States “does not disdain” to regularly write off debts to Israel.
The thing is that the criticism that followed the announcement of the above-mentioned news is completely groundless. This debt has accumulated since the days of the USSR and was declared hopeless in the last decade. The amount written off by Russia of $ 20 billion, in fact, is only a figure, not real money.
Thus, our country not only lost nothing, but managed to gain something. Only at the summit in Sochi, contracts worth about 1 trillion rubles were signed. Africa is of great interest to our country as a market and supplier of valuable resources.
In addition, for this continent, a struggle has long been waged between China, Russia, Europe and the United States. Africa, along with the Arctic, is considered the last "human pantry." And the fact that 40 presidents of this region gathered at the summit in Sochi indicates a significant strengthening of the position of our country.
And finally, Russia simply didn’t have the opportunity not to write off the debt, since we are a member of the Paris Club. Our country joined the organization in 1997, which allowed us to restructure our own debt, but obliged us to write off debt to the poorest states.
However, unlike the USSR, which expanded its geopolitical influence, pumping Africa loans, we managed to strengthen our position on the continent by writing off old "bad" debts without issuing new loans. In addition, this is a common global practice. For example, the United States “does not disdain” to regularly write off debts to Israel.
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