Putin says Russia plans no gold sales for flood aid
Reuters
May 25 2001 at 01:59PM
Yerevan - President Vladimir Putin said Russia had no plans to sell gold to raise funds to help victims of floods in Siberia`s Yakutiya region.

Russian news agencies on Thursday quoted Putin as saying he intended to sign a decree on gold and diamond sales if a clear scheme was presented to him"to help people now on the
streets".

But Putin told a news conference in the Armenian capital Yerevan, where he is attending a CIS security summit,"You misunderstood me."

"I didn`t say that Russia intends to sell gold. I reacted positively to a proposal on the possibility of a mutual settlement of debt on a so-called gold loan which Yakutiya took from Russian
authorities," he said.

"I said it is possible. I did not say we would do it."

He also said the government might allow"a company which mines diamonds and other precious stones" to sell stones worth $300 million.

ALROSA is Russia`s diamond monopoly based in Yakutiya.

"And this is not a fact, but only a possibility if we see there are no other ways of solving the problems of the population which suffered from the flood." - Reuters

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