NEW YORK, July 11 (RIA Novosti) – Russian President Vladimir Putin can forge stronger economic ties with Argentina during his visit to the South American country facing a debt crisis with US hedge funds, analysts said.
Putin will discuss trade and energy with Argentine President Cristina Kirchner in Buenos Aires on Saturday against a backdrop of a long-running dispute with investors who rejected restructuring terms on Argentine debt after 2002.
“With this visit, Putin is capitalizing on a country that also has a difficult trade relationship with the United States,” William Pomeranz, a Russia expert at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, told RIA Novosti.
“Argentina obviously has very difficult trade relations with the United States and is experiencing heightened tensions over its ability to repay debtors following the collapse of the nation’s economy some years back,” Pomeranz said.
Argentina’s economy is shrinking and inflation runs at more than 30 percent annually after a government spending spree. Many Argentines are angry at rocketing high street prices and a depreciating currency that eats into their savings.
“There is a sense that the rule of the Kirchners, first with Néstor and now Cristina, is coming to an end and there’s interest from global players about opportunities there,” said Michael Shifter, director of the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington-based think tank.
“This reflects Putin’s strategic interests over the long term.”
Putin began his Latin American trip in Cuba on Friday and he will travel to Brazil for the World Cup final in Rio de Janeiro on July 13 and to meet envoys of the BRICS’ five major emerging economies – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa in Fortaleza on July 15.
Diplomats have discussed a meeting between Putin and Angela Merkel on the sidelines of the World Cup final, where the German Chancellor will watch her countrymen play Argentina for football’s most coveted title.
Any such meeting would come against the backdrop of a bruising Cold War-style spat between Russia and the West over the Ukraine crisis, where clashes between government forces and separatists have claimed some 500 lives.
(Recasts headline, paraphrases para 1, corrects spelling of Buenos Aires in para 2)
