Cuba can't pay debt to Russian bank

Cuba can't pay debt to Russian bank

As if Cuba didn't have enough financial problems, the International
Commercial Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation has upheld a
lawsuit filed by the Moscow-based International Investment Bank (MIB,
for its Russian acronym) demanding payment for $330 million in loans to
the National Bank of Cuba. Technically, the MIB can now seize the NBC's
assets anywhere in the world and sell Cuban debts (albeit at a loss) in
other countries, reports the Russian business daily Kommersant. Mib_2
But the MIB is reluctant to take such drastic measures and will try to
settle the debt "on mutually acceptable terms," according to MIB
chairman Andrei Serebryakov (in photo). The Russian newspaper was unable
to obtain comment from the NBC. The Cuban bank "does not even have its
own Internet site," wrote the reporter, "and the only telephone number
obtained by [this] correspondent was answered by an answering machine."
The Cuban debt incurred during the Soviet era adds up to $25-26 billion,
Kommersant said, adding that "the chances of recovering it are close to
zero." The Reuters news service recently reported that the National Bank
of Cuba failed to pay debts to Japanese and Canadian firms, claiming it
was short of funds. (See our blog entry Cuba's cash not flowing.) To
read the Kommersant article, in Russian, click here. For an abridged
version in English, click here.
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.

September 04, 2008

http://miamiherald.typepad.com/cuban_colada/2008/09/cuba-cant-pay-d.html