(video) Bill Still: Russia to be Debt Free by Year's End, 1509

Good Sunday morning to you, I’m Still reporting from Washington.
Moscow will pay off the balance of the debt inherited from the old Soviet Union days this year, according to a report on Friday in the Russian newspaper, Izvestia.
The final Russian state debt is owed not to banks, but to Bosnia and Herzegovina. $125.2 billion is still owed to those nations as part of an agreement after the breakup of Yugoslavia.
A source inside the Russian Finance Ministry told Izvestia:
“The agreement has taken a long time to get ready, a preliminary agreement has been signed. The final version just needs signing, it’s a matter of a few months.”
This final state debt of Russia will be paid off within 45 days after the final signing.
Russia paid off a $60 billion final debt to what’s known as the Paris Club – a group of 19 creditors, mostly in the Western bloc, including the US and the UK, in 2006 – 9 years ahead of schedule.
According to an RT report:
“When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the newly formed Russian Federation inherited a growing external debt of over $66 billion with barely a few billion dollars in net gold and foreign exchange reserves.”
What does this mean? Has monetary reform broken out in Russia? It would make common sense, why borrow from banks when you can keep a balanced budget and print sufficient money to keep the economy humming.
But is that the case? Another report two days earlier sheds additional light on the subject.
On Feb. 15, Reuters reported that the Russian central bank is worried that some regions of Russia – similar to the states in the US – are borrowing from private banks.
Central bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina told the upper house of the Russian parliament on Wednesday, according to Reuters:
“… that the central bank was in favour of replacing the regions’ debt to banks with loans from the state budget.”
It is difficult to be sure from these skimpy reports, but it appears that Russia has gone totally rogue economically speaking and is no longer allowing the state to borrow from private banks and is even now encouraging their individual regions to not do so.
Could it be that this is the real reason that the Clinton/John McCain/Lindsey Graham axis is pushing war with Russia?
Well, I’d like a better understanding of what Russia is doing economically. So, this to Mr. Putin, you are welcome to do a Skype interview on this channel. Please consider this your formal invitation.
Please have someone respond to my best email: stillreport@gmail.com
I’m still reporting from Washington. Good day.
Visit our website at http://www.billstill.com