Chapter 700 An Offer that Cannot Be Refused

No matter what, Russia and China are getting closer now.

Fan Wubing was not idle either. He gave Yeltsin a little treatment with golden needles. The old man suddenly felt as if he was twenty years younger, full of energy, and all the accumulated evils in his body seemed to be cleared away.

"Traditional Chinese medicine is truly incredible!" Yeltsin said to Fan Wubing with great emotion.

Fan Heng has gone back. After all, he is also the Executive Vice Prime Minister. Naturally, he cannot stay here chatting all the time. It would be a waste of resources and disrespect for his own identity. Fan Wubing naturally has no scruples. .

"This is just a temporary feeling. In fact, if you could have met me five years ago, or even two years ago, and treated me, this disease would be nothing. But now, the long-term harm is deep. , It's hard to get rid of it, now it's just to let you experience the feeling of health." Fan Wubing explained to Yeltsin, "This feeling will only last about a week, and it will slowly return to normal. state."

"It's good to be able to take it easy for a week. Doctors all over Russia don't have the ability to do this." Yeltsin is already quite old, but his character is still as summarized by the outside world, very straightforward, and he is actually filming these days Fan Wubing put his shoulder on his shoulder and said to him, "What I want most right now is to dance a few songs with the young girls to the songs of Katyusha!"

"That's not impossible." Fan Wubing laughed and thought to himself, if you don't like living a long life, then I don't have any objection.

Just looking at the problem from a higher level, Russia cannot be in chaos at this time, especially before Putin can take control of the overall situation. Russia cannot be in chaos, otherwise it will only expand the power of the Americans and put pressure on China. getting bigger.

With Russia helping to support China a little, the pressure on Americans will always be smaller. If they survive these ten or eight years, when the country becomes stronger, things will be much easier to handle. At that time, look at others. The look on his face needs to be changed.

"Actually, Mr. President, you also know that I am not a doctor." Fan Wubing felt that it would be better to say some things earlier.

Yeltsin nodded and replied, "Of course I know that the wealth of Fan Investment Group is staggering. As the only major shareholder of the group, you have mastered immeasurable wealth."

"In fact, our Fan Investment Group now wants to participate in Russia's economic reform, especially in-depth cooperation in energy and mining and even other aspects, such as the telecommunications industry or the transportation of oil and natural gas. There are very promising cooperation opportunities, but I don’t know if the Russian government has such considerations to introduce foreign investment like us?” Fan Wubing said directly to Yeltsin.

In fact, Fan Wubing has been coveting Russia's natural resources for a long time.

The Chinese are often proud of their country's vast territory and rich resources, but in fact, Russia ranks first in terms of land and natural resources in the world.

From petroleum, coal, and iron to agriculture, livestock, and seafood, from forests, hydropower, and rare metals, Russia is one of the world's leading resource-rich countries. These will become the key forces for Russia's re-emergence and one of the basic factors affecting the direction of Russia's domestic and foreign policies.

Russia is the only country in the world that is almost completely self-sufficient in natural resources. As a major resource country in the world, Russia's proven resource reserves account for about one-fifth of the world's total resources, ranking high in the world.

The total value of all natural resources in Russia is approximately 300 billion U.S. dollars, of which the value of proven resource reserves is approximately 30 trillion U.S. dollars. Compared with Russia, the value of proven natural resource reserves in the United States is 10 trillion U.S. dollars. , China is US$5 trillion, and Western Europe is US$2.5 trillion.

In terms of categories, Russia's various resource reserves are almost among the best in the world. Especially in terms of minerals, forests, land, water and other resources that are in short supply in other countries, Russia has great advantages.

Regarding the country's abundant natural resources, the understanding of all walks of life in Russia can basically be summarized into two categories, one is the resource opportunity theory, and the other is the resource disaster theory.

Before the 1970s, the world's economic circles generally believed that the more abundant natural resources a country has, the more conducive it is to economic development. However, later people also believed that abundant natural resources may be detrimental to economic development. For example, after the discovery of oil and natural gas in the North Sea, the Dutch currency appreciated and exports in other fields became difficult. At that time, the Netherlands fell into a dilemma of slow economic growth and high unemployment, known as the "Dutch Disease."

Therefore, some people believe that resource wealth such as oil may ultimately bring more harm than good to Russia, and worry that the Russian economy may lose its competitiveness and suffer from the "Dutch disease".

But it is obvious that the Russian government does not feel that abundant natural resources will become a burden. Instead, it believes that natural resources are the strategic basis for Russia's re-emergence, and therefore has increased its control over resources.

Fan Wubing remembers clearly that within a few years after Putin came to power, the Russian government explicitly announced a ban on foreign companies participating in bidding for Russian natural resources such as oil, natural gas, gold mines, and copper mines. If a foreign company's shareholding in a Russian joint venture exceeds 49%, the enterprise is not allowed to participate in the development of Russia's natural resources. This means that foreign companies will not be able to participate in the extraction of Russia's natural resources.

In this way, Fan Wubing hopes that at this critical moment when Western funds are fleeing Russia as soon as possible due to the economic crisis, he can achieve his goal of entering the Russian resource market by taking the upper-level route. Russia is eager for foreign investment at this time. There shouldn't be much intention to refuse the olive branch he extended.

Sure enough, even though Yeltsin already wanted to push Putin out of the spotlight, after hearing Fan Wubing's intention, he couldn't help but ask a few more questions, "In which area does Fan Investment Group want to invest more?" How much investment?”

"We are quite confident in investing in Russia. If we can be allowed to exploit oil and gas resources in Eastern Siberia, the initial investment will not be less than 20 billion US dollars. And if the Russian government allows us to enter the telecommunications market, this part The investment will not be less than 10 billion U.S. dollars." Fan Wubing carefully considered the two figures for Yeltsin. This was the conclusion he came to after careful consideration. It should not be too little, nor too much. , otherwise Yeltsin would probably regret it if he heard that Fan Wubing actually invested so much money into Russia.

Sure enough, Yeltsin still felt that he could bear the two figures reported by Fan Wubing. If this thing could be done, then 30 billion US dollars of foreign investment would be introduced to Russia, and there would also be follow-up development funds. , this is a big gain.

If he can accomplish this before he leaves office, he will be able to make his political achievements look more respectable, and what will be handed over to Putin will also appear to be a relatively abundant political resource.

From the bottom of his heart, Putin still hopes that Russia will become better in his own hands. Although he has smashed the old system to pieces, this does not mean that he does not want to build a more prosperous Russia. , not just facing the embarrassing situation where the unemployment rate remains high and the people in economic difficulties live in poverty.

Therefore, these topics that Fan Wubing raised to him were something that he could not take lightly, or in other words, this was an offer that he could not refuse.

But, I don’t know where Fan Wubing’s bottom line is? How much does he want from Russia?

"Actually, I only have one additional condition, which is that I hope that Russia can use its influence to help our Fan Investment Group obtain mineral exploration and mining rights in Mongolia." Fan Wubing raised his own question to Yeltsin. "As for my investment in Russia, I can also consider sole proprietorship, joint venture, and even holding less than 49% of the equity in some joint ventures can be considered, which is enough to show our Sincerity.”

After hearing Fan Wubing's request, Yeltsin suddenly felt much more relaxed. What he was most worried about was that Fan Wubing had opened his mouth. Nowadays, it is very difficult for Russia to attract foreign investment. The main reason is because of the unstable political situation. Under his high-pressure policy, the cabinet was changed every few months. Foreigners could not see any stable economic policies in Russia. In such a risky market, without great courage, no one could Don't dare to get involved.

Fan Wubing expressed his willingness to invest tens of billions of dollars to enter the Russian resource market, which was a very big deal for Yeltsin. However, he was also worried that Fan Wubing's asking price was too high and he would have to choose between advancement and retreat.

As a result, Fan Wubing did not have many extravagant hopes at this time, and said that obtaining a controlling stake was not necessarily certain, but he proposed a compromise condition for entering the Mongolian resource market, which surprised Yeltsin.

However, it is better to sacrifice the interests of other countries than to sacrifice your own interests.

It is true that Mongolia became independent at the instigation of the former Soviet Union. The Soviets did use Mongolia as a springboard to enter China and stationed a large number of troops. But now it seems that Mongolia, which has lost its military significance, is no longer useful to Russia. As long as the establishment of a military base directly in Mongolia does not threaten Russia's national security, what does mining mean?

Could it be said that the resources of the small country of Mongolia can still surpass Russia?

Yeltsin felt that the condition proposed by Fan Wubing was really irresistible.