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Market Drop May Temper Rus Georgia Moves
When it comes to containing Russia, the invisible hand of the markets may be the West's most potent weapon.Tightening access to international credit and mounting stock losses are hurting Russian billionaires as well as state- owned corporations, prompting calls by businessmen to heed Western complaints over Kremlin policy in Georgia. The head of the country's biggest business association, the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, met President Dmitry Medvedev, urging him to take ``anti-crisis'' measures. ``The stock market is plunging, capital is fleeing, there is a severe shortage of liquidity in the banking system, prices for many core exports are falling and inflationary pressures are strengthening,'' the business group's Alexander Shokhin said today in a live televised Kremlin meeting. Current policies ``may turn out to be inadequate,'' he said. After rejecting Western appeals not to recognize breakaway Georgian regions, Medvedev last week signaled compromise for the first time. He agreed to implement a European Union-brokered cease-fire and pull troops back into the disputed territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Mevedev told the gathering of Russian billionaires that the government doesn't want ``either confrontation or isolation.'' Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2008-09-15 |
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