http://english.pravda.ru/main/18/89/358/12018_dollar.htmlRussia continues investing all its profits in the US economy
Russian government has always been proud of its innovation - Stabilization Fund, but lately this fund started causing problems. Indeed, there is no reason to convert extra revenues of national economy into US dollars and accumulate them in the special fund provided that the US dollar is steadily depreciating.
The amount of money in the Stabilization Fund exceeded the most optimistic prognoses of the government analysts. On February 1, 2003 the fund had 106.3 billion roubles (about $3.5 billion). The Fund will pile up money even faster than today if oil price do not decrease (and the decrease is unlikely to take place in the 6 months to come).
However, independent experts are do not share the joy of the government financiers. Russian government does not seem to believe in the perspectives for Euro and strengthening Russian rouble, therefore the government continues converting the Stabilization Fund assets into the US dollars. However, the dollar is decreasing. The last meeting of the G7 countries demonstrated that the world economic leaders are not going to undertake any measures to stop depreciating US dollar. For Russian Stabilization Fund this means no profit at best and losses at worst case scenario. This does not look like the government"s achievement.