Reuters and the Moscow Times reports that Matthias Kollatz-Ahnen, a vice president of the European Investment Bank (the only non-governmental shareholder in the EBRD), said the bank aimed to take a majority stake in EBRD through gradually buying out non-European Union shareholders.
Australia has said that it wishes to sell its stake, and the US has pushed the EBRD to pay a dividend (unprecedented for a development bank), which would have the effect of lowering its available capital.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Reuters/MT: EIB interested in buying out non-EU Shareholders of EBRD
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
FT: Mirow backed to head EBRD
The Financial Times reports that Thomas Mirow, the deputy German finance minister, has the support of the European Union and will probably be named head of the EBRD at their annual meeting in Kiev (Kyiv) this May, replacing the respected Jean Lemierre
Mr Mirow told the Financial Times this week that the EBRD still had a "crucial" role to play, in spite of strong economic growth in eastern Europe.
WSJ: Nizhny Novgorod Development-Third City of Russia?
The Wall Street Journal had a brief piece on a fanciful proposal for Nizhny Novgorod.
It is encouraging to see such projects in the 'provinces' of Russia. Moscow is of course Russia's leading city, and St. Petersburg is firmly the second city. However, there are around 10 cities which could legitimately be considered the 'third city of Russia', based on their populations (all approximately 1.0-1.4 million) and economic viability. Nizhny Novgorod is of course one of these.
Many older Americans will remember Nizhny Novgorod under its Soviet-era name, Gorky, and as the place of internal exile for Andrei Sakharov. Less known is that was also the headquarters of the automotive industry during the Soviet era (GAZ originally built on license from Ford the Model A), and is still an important industrial center.
Although economically impractical for many years, this project is indicative of the power of the Russian economy, and the more prosperous regions, that such thinking is going on today.
Sunday, March 2, 2008
NY Times Book Recommendations on Recent Russian Political and Economic Issues
Stephen Kotkin of The New York Times had a good piece in today's paper summarizing books on current Russian economic and political thought. The article is notable in that it summarizes the positions of many of the leading experts on Russia today, including Dmitri V. Trenin and Anders Aslund. By being aware of the experts' bias, one can read much into their commentary.
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