Russia willing to help bail out euro zone nations - Putin
ST. PETERSBURG. Nov 7 (Interfax) - Russia would be willing to help bail out the trouble-stricken euro zone countries, but would in return expect a higher status in the International Monetary Fund "and other structures of this kind," Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said.
"Recently Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev spoke about this at the G20 meeting. He said that we as members of the IMF would be able to take part in this joint work via IMF instruments. It is in our interest that there should be no problems in the euro zone, that problems should be minimized," Putin told a news conference after a prime minister-level meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in St. Petersburg.
"We won't link this to energy or to anything else," he said, but "we, of course, expect that, if countries such as Russia and the People's Republic of China take an active part in global efforts to improve the situation, it will affect our status in organizations such as the IMF and other structures of this kind."
Putin said euro zone problems had not received much attention at the SCO meeting. The meeting had focused on problems facing SCO member states, he said.
"But, of course, what happens in the euro zone affects us, and does so very directly as well. In any case, we, neither Russia nor China - these are, after all, the main SCO countries from the point of view of economic potential - have none of the problems the euro zone has," Putin said.
Neither Russia nor China have "astronomical" sovereign debts such as some euro zone countries, he added.
The sovereign debts are on average 85% to 87% of gross domestic product in stricken euro zone countries and more than 100% of GDP in some of them, Putin said. "We have nothing of the kind, in Russia there is 10% sovereign debt, and only 3% of that - virtually zero - is foreign borrowings," he said.
This means Russia has a sound financial system, Putin said.
