African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1012 Germination
Russia is vast and rich in resources, but currently the resource that East Africa is most "dependent" on from Russia is oil. More than half of the oil resources are taken away by East Africa every year, so the Tsarist Russian government's use of oil as bait naturally attracted Ambassador Kroll's attention to a certain extent.

But just note that although East Africa itself is short of oil resources, it is not as bad as Germany, where there is almost nothing. Moreover, East Africa currently has more sources of oil from abroad.

"As a friend, tell me honestly, have you, Russia, encountered any difficulties recently?" said Ambassador Klo.

He vaguely felt that the mentality of the Russian government had changed, and this was not the attitude of the Russian government in the past.

"Alas, for Russia, the difficulty has never ended. That is the financial pressure. Lack of money has always been our biggest difficulty in Russia. And in recent years, due to the economic crisis in other European countries, there are relatively few countries and individuals willing to lend money." Count Cadell said.

The economic crisis has not only hit Russia. Other countries naturally also need cash to stabilize their economies. On the other hand, the economic crisis has caused Russian companies to go bankrupt, default on debts, and have serious bad debt situations. This has not only reduced the Russian government's source of income, but also made it difficult for Russia to borrow from the international community.

Various factors have led to the current vicious cycle of the Russian economy. Of course, as the economic crisis is coming to an end, it will not be worse than in the past few years. However, Russia is now borrowing more money than before, which makes Cloe think that there must be some abnormality inside Russia that he is not aware of.

After all, East Africa and Russia are "not familiar" with each other. In the past, Russia's main financial backers were Western European countries. Now it can't wait to get something from East Africa, which is obviously a manifestation of being desperate.

After all, East Africa is not active in the international financial market, especially in the business field. It can only negotiate with the East African government, East African state-owned enterprises or banks, which makes East African money the most difficult to obtain.

If it were an ordinary businessman, he would have jumped in long ago if Russia had offered him oil resources as bait. Regardless of whether what Russia offered was a trap or not, driven by interests, there is no business that European and American businessmen dare not do. The East African government does not have such initiative, except for the Black Xingen Group under the royal family.

Institutions such as East African state-owned enterprises and banks are actually mostly subordinate agencies of the East African government, so they are more cautious in lending abroad.

Therefore, Ambassador Kroll was very confident that the Tsarist Russian government had already encountered obstacles from other countries or capitals before coming to him, but Count Cadet was obviously unwilling to reveal the main purpose of the Russian government.

So Ambassador Clo said: "Count Cardel, I need to communicate with my country about this matter first. If possible, you can come back in three days and I can give you a reply."

Count Kader: "No problem. This time we Russians are very sincere. I am waiting for good news from your country!"

……

After seeing off Count Cadell, Ambassador Clo sent news back to his country while sending people to the Russian government to inquire about the news.

The internal situation of the Russian government was relatively easy to obtain. With just a slight move, Ambassador Kroll vaguely understood the Russian government's intentions.

In a telegram to his country, he wrote: "At present, Russia's economic crisis has been smoothly overcome, and Russia's active borrowing from various countries is obviously not to cope with the aftermath of the economic crisis."

"According to some Russian officials and the embassy's understanding of the recent internal meetings of the Russian government, Russia is likely to raise funds for the construction of the Siberian Railway, or to prepare funds for launching a war."

"In recent years, the Russian government has become increasingly dissatisfied with the Far East issue, especially the competitive trend between Japan and Russia after the Far East naval war."

"The two countries have sharp conflicts over the Korean Peninsula and the northeastern Far East. Russia's dissatisfaction with Japan was planted as early as the late 1990s, but the sudden outbreak of the economic crisis in the early 20th century left the Russian government with no time to spare and temporarily unable to confront Japan." "In addition, there are also a group of knowledgeable people in Russia who attach great importance to Japan and do not look down on Japan because of Russia's vast territory and strong national strength. Therefore, there are currently about four forces within the Russian government, namely the Tsar, the war faction, the peace faction, and the centrists."

"The war faction has expanded recently. On the one hand, the economic crisis has ended, and Russia is aggressive by nature, so this is consistent with Russia's historical performance. On the other hand, the social contradictions caused by the economic crisis have not yet been resolved. This time the Russian government may intend to use war to resolve the contradictions."

"As the best decision-maker in Russia, the Tsar's attitude plays a decisive role. Recently, the Tsar has been in close contact with the war faction in the country... So it is very likely that the Russian government's frequent actions this time are aimed at Japan."

Ambassador Kloe formed a rough idea of ​​the Russian government's thinking through the data recorded in the embassy and by bribing Russian insiders, and then he conveyed his judgment back to his country.

Rhine City.

Ernst also received the news from the embassy, ​​and soon he discussed it with his officials.

"Ambassador Klo's words are more in line with the current situation in Russia. Throughout Russian history, wars have been launched almost every once in a while, which is in line with Russia's war cycle."

Russia's history is a history of war, and it has a record of fighting with neighboring countries, from Finland in Northern Europe, to the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East, and finally to Japan in the Far East, forming a perfect arc.

Outside this arc, there are two support points, Britain and the United States, which are used to restrain Russia's activities in their respective spheres of influence.

Japan is a pawn supported by both Britain and the United States as an offshore balance between Tsarist Russia and the Far Eastern Empire. Therefore, even if Japan's economy is in such bad shape, Britain and the United States will generally provide a certain degree of support to Japan.

After all, if Japan is not supported, and either the Far Eastern Empire or Tsarist Russia becomes stronger, the plans of both countries will be shattered.

Japan's weaknesses, namely its lack of resources and small area, became its advantages at this time. Both Britain and the United States could drive Japan with greater confidence.

In fact, the history of the previous life is also the same. Even though Japan committed many atrocities in World War II and eventually defeated its masters Britain and the United States, the United States still supported Japan after World War II and used it as a pawn to contain the Soviet Union and later Russia and the Far Eastern Empire for a long time. If Ernst was an American or British, he would definitely support Japan to weaken the Far Eastern Empire or Russia.

"Your Highness is right. Nicholas II should be a more traditional Russian monarch, very different from his father, Alexander III. During Alexander III's reign, Russia experienced a rare period of peace and the economy was relatively prosperous, but this was very abnormal for Russian traditions."

As far as East African officials were concerned, Tsarist Russia was a country that loved aggression, and in fact East Africa’s reputation in the international community was not much better.

However, since the 1990s, East Africa has changed its direction, and the once-busy East Africa is almost nowhere to be seen. After experiencing a brief period of peace under Alexander's previous life, Russia has now returned to its old ways.

Therefore, the East African monarchs and ministers, who stood on the moral high ground, could ridicule Russia without scruples, while ignoring the large amount of territory that East Africa had acquired through expansion since the mid-19th century, and the tens of millions of black slaves who now served East Africa.

To put it bluntly, if the Tsar had so much free labor at his disposal, he would not have been so focused on plucking the hair of the gray animals. After all, the gray animals are his own people, while it is an honor for foreigners like blacks to be driven around.

(End of this chapter)