EX-SOVIET STATES EARMARK $10 BLN TO FIGHT CRISIS
Maria Golovnina

Reuters
Thomson Financial News
12.22.08, 08:27 AM EST

ALMATY, Dec 22 (Reuters) – A group of former-Soviet nations will create
a $10 billion cross-border fund to fight the effects of the global
financial crisis, Kazakhstan, one of the participants, said on Monday.

Regional economies, linked by trading and infrastructure networks
inherited from their Soviet past, have been hit hard by the global
credit crisis and have sought to join forces to ease the impact.

Kazakhstan, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan agreed last week at
a meeting in Kazakhstan to set aside $10 billion to ‘overcome the
effects of the global economic crisis’, Kazakhstan’s presidential
press service said.

Its statement did not say how much each country would contribute and
gave no details on how the fund would operate.

Russia and Kazakhstan are the richest of the five, with oil revenues
contributing to much of their wealth, while the other three, poorer
nations operate much smaller state budgets.

Ex-Soviet governments have been worried that grim economic times may
spill over into broader political instability and spark a wave of
public discontent.