Using the UN to Help your Receivables

From Yulia Latynina in the Moscow Times:

The Geopolitics of Accounts Receivable By Yulia Latynina On Sunday, the 15 members of the United Nations Security Council, including Russia, unanimously passed Resolution 1747, which provides for the imposition of sanctions against Iran in response to its nuclear development program. On Monday — the very next working day — Russia announced that Iran had finally made overdue payments for Russian construction work on the Bushehr atomic energy plant in Iran. Looking at this from a commercial rather than a diplomatic standpoint, Moscow appears to have pried the money from Tehran using the Security Council in much the same way it uses the Prosecutor General’s Office for the same purpose at home. When trying to explain why Russia is assisting Iran in its atomic energy program, analysts usually opt for complex geopolitical explanations, like portraying it as Moscow’s answer to a U.S. White House trying to create a unipolar world. A simpler explanation is that Russia has become a very active economic actor and pragmatically minded people in President Vladimir Putin’s circle are prepared, in the best tradition of Adam Smith, to sell just about anything to anyone.

Complete article here.