The rise of soviet debt and ways of its settlement in the Slovak-Russian relations in the 1990-s

The author in this article analyzes the role of Soviet debt in Slovak-Russian relations in the 1990s. This issue has already been raised in historiography, but only on the basis of journalism. The available archive base (diplomatic reports and documents of the Czechoslovak and Slovak governments) provides an opportunity to take a more qualitative look at this question. Therefore the author for the first time in the world historiography may show the causes of origin of soviet debt, the dynamics of its settlement, as well as its role in the Russian vector of Slovak foreign policy. At the beginning of article are described the reasons for the appearance of Soviet debt (fall in oil prices), which led to the appearance of a negative balance in the Soviet-Czechoslovak trade, and are analyzed possible ways of solving this problem. The author comes to a conclusion that the Czechoslovak and Soviet governments, having concluded an Agreement on the Czechoslovak credit arrangement for the USSR on November 10, 1989, selected the path that would suit interests of both states. After the velvet revolution, Soviet debt rose to $ 5 billion. Therefore, the issue of its settlement was raised during the first visit of the Slovak government delegation in Moscow in March 1993. During the negotiations, two main directions in this field were discussed: a size of the debt and a form of its payment. The amount of debt owed by Slovakia after the dissolution of Czech and Slovak Federative Republic was $ 1.7 billion. It was paid for by the supply of goods, military-industrial production, energy resources, shares of Russian privatized enterprises. Later, in the first half of 1994, Slovakia signed an agreement with Russia on settlement the debts of the former USSR and the Russian Federation to Slovakia, which outlined the main mechanisms for Russia's repayment of debt obligations. To implement these mechanisms, frequent consultations were held at the level of the ministries of the two countries. The author identifies two main areas in the negotiation process. First of all, it was necessary to reserve financial resources in the Russian budget, which were allocated for the purchase of goods provided by Russia to partially repay the debt. Then, at the talks it was necessary to sign protocols on specific projects for which these funds were intended. The author concludes that during the meetings, as much as possible, the representatives of the two states defended its national and economic interests. The article also emphasizes negative phenomena in this kind of cooperation: agreements were not always implemented, sometimes there was a serious delay, not all officials of ministries understood the importance of this sphere in Slovak-Russian relations. Despite these temporary problems, which arose at that time because of the objective prerequisites, the author focuses attention on the successful completion of this field of bilateral relation.

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