26.03.09

The official Russian presidential website has published the Russian Federation's proposals for the G20 summit in London, which is to be held in April. Russia is calling for a reform of the international currency-finance system and, specifically, for creating a supra-national reserve currency, "whose emission would be performed by international financial institutions." How realistic is the implementation of this idea? Experts tell Moskovskiy Komsomolets about this...

Vasiliy Solodkov, director of the Higher School of Economics Banking Institute:

The times of the Bretton Woods system, which was based on a guarantee of exchange of gold for dollars, have passed. Therein lies the root of the crisis of the present-day world currency. How to make a new supra-national currency today -for me, that is a complete mystery. Furthermore, the emergence of the whole world from crisis is associated with how soon the US can pull itself out of it. Even if we suddenly now think of a way to replace the dollar with another reserve currency, this would deal a blow to the American economy and, as a result, to all producer countries that work for the American economy.

Mikhail Delyagin, director of the Institute for Problems of Globalization:

This is a very correct idea in the sense that supra-national financial regulation is necessary. Such proposals have already been expressed by the leaders of a number of not very economically developed countries. Medvedev was the only one of the G8 leaders who presented this idea, and therefore he automatically won the initiative in this question. Russia has set a long-term task, which may someday be resolved. But, unfortunately, today this idea cannot be realized for two reasons: Technical - this is a very complex measure, and strategic. It would be impossible to come to agreement on a common currency, simply because different countries have diametrically opposing interests. Common world money is a question of decades.

Dmitriy Abzalov, leading economic expert at the Russian Center for Current Political Studies:

The appearance of new regional currencies appears more realistic to me: A Latin American or a Russian-Kazakhstani currency (Nazarbayev has already thought of a name for it - the "evraz"). But even the creation of regional monetary systems is hindered by one question: Where will the emission center be? And it will become all the more acute when they start talking about a world currency. In the present-day world - where your country's money is printed is where the political decisions on how to manage your country are made. Let us presume that this world currency is introduced. Would this be advantageous to Russia? Only if the printing press is here, in Moscow. But the probability of that is not very great, because we do not have the biggest economy. And that means we would lose out in terms of independence. Therefore, for us, it would be more advantageous to lobby for the creation of a ruble zone with our neighboring countries.

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Source: Moskovskiy Komsomolets