09 October 2008

The little Cuba of the north

According to bloomberg.com, Moscow is offering the Icelanders A loan of four billion euros to help it get through the current crisis.

If Russia can support its stock market and preserve growth, the current financial crisis represents a chance to demonstrate ``influence in the world economy and the diminishing influence of the U.S,'' said Sergei Markov, an adviser to the Kremlin who is a lawmaker in the ruling United Russia party.

Both Putin, 56, and Medvedev, 43, have criticized the U.S. for spreading financial contagion around the world.

U.S. ``irresponsibility'' led to the global credit squeeze, which may reduce Russian growth to as little as 5.7 percent this year, according to the finance ministry, Putin told a cabinet meeting Oct. 1.

One former bank official is quoted as using the line that Iceland is becoming the little Cuba of the North.

Bit of a stretch, but still a cute line.

If things get tough will the locals here start recalling the pre-Confederation ties between Newfoundland and Tsarist and revolutionary Russia?

Maybe.

But don't mention Trotsky and the Cochrane Hotel.

-srbp-