Originally posted by Boroda:
JFYI: USSR payed every damn kopeyka for the US lend-leased aid!
Well, as of 30 June 2000 there was $155 million outstanding. It may have been big money in 1940 but it's pocket change now.
Do you have any information that the $155 million was paid since the June 2000 rescheduling of the debt? I could find no record of further payments.
BTW, I'm not complaining about non-payment. I'm glad the US was able to help your country, during and after WW2, with food supplies and economic aid.
This statement is a bit much, however:
"While US gained huge financial and political profits for each of the 20 millions of Soviet citizens who perished in a War". Bit of a reach, don't you think?
Anyway.........
http://www.state.gov/www/issues/economic/fs_000301_wardebt.html War-Related Debts of Other Countries to the U.S. Government
Fact Sheet, released by the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs
U.S. Department of State, March 1, 2000
"The case of debts arising from World War II is somewhat less complicated. At this time only four countries, discussed below, owe the U.S. government debts of any size arising from World War II programs to aid our allies. Other countries have paid their debts in full.
The United Kingdom still has amounts outstanding from World War II and its immediate aftermath which it continues to repay on a regular basis. World War II-era claims on Iran have been incorporated into the claims being adjudicated by the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal, established after the 1979 Iranian revolution. Lend Lease claims against the former Soviet Union arising from World War II were settled in a 1972 agreement between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. In the 1972 agreement, the U.S.S.R. pledged to make three initial payments totaling $48 million and to repay the remaining Lend Lease debt once the United States had granted Most Favored Nations (MFN) trade status. The Soviet Union made the three initial downpayments, but because it did not obtain MFN status at that time -- because of conditions set forth in the 1974 Trade Act -- its obligation to make the remaining payments toward its Lend Lease debt was not triggered before the dissolution of the U.S.S.R. However, MFN status was extended to the Russian Federation in 1992, and accordingly,
in 1993, Russia signed an agreement with the U.S. in which it acknowledged its liability and agreed to a repayment schedule for the former U.S.S.R.'s Lend Lease debt. Finally, the U.S. continues to work for a resolution with Taiwan of the issue of debts arising from World War II-era loans extended to China."
http://www.cnie.org/nle/inter-19.html IB92089: Russia
Stuart D. Goldman
Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division
November 28, 2000
"On May 26, as required by law thirty days prior to its taking effect, the Administration submitted to Congress a report on a bilateral agreement with Russia to reschedule its 1999 and 2000 repayments of Soviet-era debt. While Paris Club creditors have been adverse to total forgiveness, they have favored rescheduling due to the burden the debt places on Russian efforts to reform its economy. However, Chairmen Helms and Gilman in mid-June announced they would put the agreement on "hold" due to Russian actions in Chechnya and support for Serbia.
What made this move particularly significant is that, of the roughly $485 million of U.S. debt that would be rescheduled, $155 million was part of its Lend Lease debt, held from World War II. A provision of the Trade Act of 1974 requires that arrears in this debt be punished by loss of MFN (most favored nation/normal trade relations) status. Therefore, if the debt could not be rescheduled, on July 1, when payment would otherwise be due, Russia would either be forced to make the payment or stand to lose its MFN status.
On June 30, the Administration announced that it would proceed with the rescheduling, regardless of the congressional leaders' views.
