Putin visits Mongolia

Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visisted Mongolia during Wednesday May 13 and met Mongolian Prime Minister Sanj Bayar and President Nambariin Enkhabayar. Accordingly the 70th anniversary of the joint Mongolian-Soviet victory over Japanese supported Chinese troops in 1939.

The visit was initiated by Bayar during his visit in Russia a couple of weeks ago. It was discussed whether this was a smart move or not. Mongolian relations to Russia has been a little bit complicated after the downfall of the Soviet Union. The immediate effect was that the Soviet support for the Mongolian state budget was terminated, which created a deficit of 70 percent. This was later filled with Western foreign aid.

Then there was the repayment of the economic support for development given by the Soviet Union to Mongolia, which ended in a negotiation that determined that 250 million USD should be repayed. In the following scandal about 50 million USD dissapeared on its way to Moscow.

The there was the heavy increase in oil prices last year, that created tensions caused by Russian methods of increasing the price level, not very dissimilar to those used against Ukraine this winter.

This means that quite some Mongolians look upon Russians in general and Russian leaders in particular with some distrust. The implication is that Bayar's initiative to invite Putin might very well backfire and do more harm than good.

As the latest opinion poll shows, the Democratic Party Candidate Elbegdorj leads with less than one percent. So it might be time for a non-MPRP president for the first time since the office of Ochirbat. With less than 10 days left to the election we will soon know if it was smart to invite Putin or not...