Not to be outdone in having a say in the Banco Delta Asia issue, a senior Russian official, Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov, said today that Russian banks would be able to assist in the transfer of that scary $25 million NK money if they received written guarantees from the U.S.:
“There is a chance we could use our facilities, if the U.S. side provides a written guarantee that they will not introduce any sanctions against our financial institutions, we may be in a position to look at the possible transfer of these funds to a Russian bank where the North Korean government has an account,” Alexander Losyukov said.
The U.S. has already approached Russia (along with just about anybody else it seems) on the money transfer. However, Losyukov, who is Russia’s chief negotiator to the 6-party talks, has been talking about the need for written guarantees from the U.S. at least since March. These recent statements sound like Russia needing to stay involved in the issue, rather than any actual progress being made.
So here is my question: Is it that the US Treasury can’t or won’t give the one bank that takes this money already a written get out of jail free card? If there is some legal reason that such a guarantee cannot be done, then this is a very convenient way for Russian or other country representatives to appear cooperative by continuing to say that they’d like to help, but you know, it’s not working out.