Putin wants oil deals for debt write-off

[Darranar]

Russia is willing to write off up to two-thirds of Iraq's debt to Moscow only if its oil companies get their share of contracts in Iraq, President Vladimir Putin has said.

Putin made the offer to cancel a large chunk of the $8 billion that Baghdad owes to Moscow in talks on Monday with a delegation from the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council, a Kremlin official said on Tuesday.

The official stressed that the announcement by members of the Iraqi delegation that Moscow would forgive 65% of the debt was premature.

"There is no question of us writing off 65 percent just like that. We have not taken this decision, we are ready to consider it," the official said.

Al Jazeera

[Old and In the Way]

1. It's all about the oil.......

Saddam may have been evil and we may say we want to build democracy in Iraq, but at the end of the day, George's friends are keeping their hands on the oil valve there.

Can you imagine if Putin had made the pre-emptive strike under the guise that his intel was saying SH had WMD and were 20 minutes away from dropping one on Moscow?