Russian Economy General News: #7

miketheterrible wrote:Argue all you want but lets see reality here:
1) China still buys US T Bonds.  And US threatens China all the time
2) US TBonds outsell Chinese and Indian by far.  Probably way more than Indian.
3) CBR may have unliked policies but well, look at the results.  Russia is growing and has their own developing industry.

Austin wrote:Hope CBR Reads this every time they buy US T-Bills !

Senate looks to jab Russia

A bipartisan deal to boost sanctions against Russia is taking shape despite the Trump administration’s mixed signals on engaging with Moscow

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/11/senate-russia-sanctions-239365

Austin wrote:Hope CBR Reads this every time they buy US T-Bills !

Senate looks to jab Russia

A bipartisan deal to boost sanctions against Russia is taking shape despite the Trump administration’s mixed signals on engaging with Moscow

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/11/senate-russia-sanctions-239365

miketheterrible wrote:

Austin wrote:Hope CBR Reads this every time they buy US T-Bills !

Senate looks to jab Russia

A bipartisan deal to boost sanctions against Russia is taking shape despite the Trump administration’s mixed signals on engaging with Moscow

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/11/senate-russia-sanctions-239365

And what are they exactly going to do?  They barred a nation like Iran entirely and it did nothing.  Add Russia to the list and now US creates a situation they no longer can control.  Essnetially, even if it was $200B in US T Bonds it is barely a dent at Russia.  Sorry to say, the US will end up hurting itself in the end and everyone will cry "why did we allow this to happen" when Russia really starts to push back at America.  What they don't realize is this playing nice from Russia is keeping their puppet in Ukraine alive and their bases in Syria alive.

This is from sanctioned America:

http://tass.com/economy/950950

miketheterrible wrote:Lets see what the coming days happen. Forex is bullshit anyway. Fiat sitting outside of the country. Even if they lose it, oh well. They did before and look what happened? They can just call half a trillion in debt and say they can't pay it back and US will find it hard to explain why half a trillion is lost to their banks.  And then not to mention how much resources and such US purchased from Russia like titanium is lost. Or sales and aftermarket of its goods in Russia. Or the fact that they won't be able to launch men into space.

That is all worth losing 90B in paper with a dead guys face on it.

The Gaidar Economic Policy Institute has conducted a study in which it was found out that the amount of violations in public procurement amount to 2 trillion rubles a year.

The most common corruption scheme was favouring of tenders, the work of which could only be carried out by one company.

It was found that more than 60% of purchases across the public sector were made with violations of rules.

The federal budget leads with 32.9% of violations, followed closely by municipality councils (19.6%). Regional budgets are respectively in the third place with the figure at 8%.

Losses from non-competitive conduct in public procurement, as noted by the authors of the study, make up at least 2 trillion rubles a year - one-eighth of all the money that the government spends using the tender process.

The Gaidar Institute gives a number of recommendations to improve the situation on corruption. In particular, it proposes to establish a list of competitive methods of procurement, to develop model regulations on procurement and harmonize the conditions for advance payments.

Also, the Institute considers it necessary to toughen the penalties for violations during the tender procedures.

KomissarBojanchev wrote:lhttp://www.fort-russ.com/2017/06/18-of-russian-government-budget-for.html
1/8 of Russian government budget for procurement is siphoned annually

The Gaidar Economic Policy Institute has conducted a study in which it was found out that the amount of violations in public procurement amount to 2 trillion rubles a year.

The most common corruption scheme was favouring of tenders, the work of which could only be carried out by one company.

It was found that more than 60% of purchases across the public sector were made with violations of rules.

The federal budget leads with 32.9% of violations, followed closely by municipality councils (19.6%). Regional budgets are respectively in the third place with the figure at 8%.

Losses from non-competitive conduct in public procurement, as noted by the authors of the study, make up at least 2 trillion rubles a year - one-eighth of all the money that the government spends using the tender process.

The Gaidar Institute gives a number of recommendations to improve the situation on corruption. In particular, it proposes to establish a list of competitive methods of procurement, to develop model regulations on procurement and harmonize the conditions for advance payments.

Also, the Institute considers it necessary to toughen the penalties for violations during the tender procedures.

The Gaidar institute is a neoliberal POSm but do these findings have any merit?

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate has reached a bipartisan agreement on a new round of sanctions against Russia, a move that will likely force President Donald Trump to either sign or veto a measure that he has not said he supports.

The sanctions are in response to a trio of Russian actions, including their interference in the 2016 election, engagement in Syria and invasion of Crimea.

In a rebuke to the president, negotiators agreed that the additional sanctions on Russia would prohibit the president from being able to lift them without Congressional approval.

In addition, the measure would codify existing sanctions and place new economic restrictions in an effort to economically harm specific individuals and Russia's economy.

Sanctions would be placed on Russians who violate human rights, supply weapons to the Bashar al-Asad regime in Syria or who are involved in the Russian defense and intelligence industry. It also places additional sanctions on specific industries, including the country's mining, shipping and railway industry.

“By codifying existing sanctions and requiring Congressional review of any decision to weaken or lift them, we are ensuring that the United States continues to punish President Putin for his reckless and destabilizing actions," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer wrote in a statement. "These additional sanctions will also send a powerful and bipartisan statement to Russia and any other country who might try to interfere in our elections that they will be punished."

The measure will be attached to a larger bill that would impose new sanctions on Iran, which the president has supported. If the amendment passes a procedural vote Wednesday morning, the Senate could vote it up or down on Thursday. It would then have to be approved by the House before it reaches the president's desk.

Senate majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced last week that he supports adding the Russia sanctions to the measure and relevant senators in leadership and those in charge of the Banking and Foreign Relations Committee began working out an agreement on a measure.

The White House has been silent on the proposal and administration officials have been unclear on what the official position is. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in April that the current Russian sanctions would “remain” until the country gives up control of the Crimean peninsula. But the administration has initiated a cozier relationship with Putin, even discussing returning its diplomatic compounds and easing sanctions on Russia's oil industry.

Trump has indicated he is skeptical about additional sanctions and has been dismissive about the role of Russian interference in the U.S. elections. Last Friday, Trump called the investigations into the interference and possible ties to his campaign "an excuse by the Democrats who lost an election that some people think they shouldn’t have lost."

"I think the president has conflated the legitimacy of his election with Russia’s involvement. Nobody’s saying — he won it fairly — that the Russians actually changed the outcome,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. “[Putin] put the opposition leader in jail today. I think the president will sign the bill. I don’t want to speak for him but I think the case against Russia is overwhelming.”

Some Republicans, including Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., who is also the head of the Foreign Affairs Committee, have been skeptical of moving forward with Russian sanctions. Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Arizona, said last week that the Senate ought to give Trump “more time” before pushing sanctions.

But many Republicans wanted to move ahead. And McConnell’s support advanced the process quickly.

McConnell, who is deeply skeptical and critical of Russia, touted the measure last week before an agreement was reached before the Faith and Freedom Conference in Washington, D.C.

“We’ll soon pass very important new sanctions on both Iran and on Russia,” McConnell said in his list of accomplishments.

Democratic leaders said that they would support an Iranian sanctions bill only if tough sanctions against Russia were also included.

“I think it’s a really good idea to do,” said Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Virginia, and Hillary Clinton’s running mate. “It would be a little odd to take up sanctions that we need to do against a nation that poses us some threat in the region but (not) sanctions on a nation that all of our intel community has decided direct attacked American elections.”

All he did was apply sanction on food items from EU and US and proclaimed victory.

GarryB wrote:

All he did was apply sanction on food items from EU and US and proclaimed victory.

I would not underestimate him... those food sanctions were brilliant... they hurt the EU countries that hate Russia the most and created a situation where food makers in Russia could get investment and the chance to compete and produce food.

Normally a country in the EU with nice weather and government support can easily undercut a Russian producer in price, but this threw those guys off the table...

I look forward to seeing what Putin will do in response to this...  

miketheterrible wrote:What makes you think they can't afford to lose it? Do you happen to know that US and plenty others don't have a reserve? Did you also know that it isn't 100B but 90B? As well, did you know Russia replenished huge amount of its forex in very short time? Did you know that is smaller than Russia's trade surplus?