CRISIS IN THE KREMLIN : Joint Ventures Will Continue, Soviets Say
Soviets speaking Tuesday at a business conference in Fullerton sought to assure Americans that it is still safe to start business ventures in the Soviet Union despite the sudden political upheaval.
“Foreign trade relations will be kept . . . so you should have no doubt about that,” Kamil Bekyashev, a Soviet adviser on international business law, told 25 Orange County business people who came to the Fullerton Marriott Hotel to hear about doing business in the Soviet Union.
The Soviets represented Intermet Engineering, the private arm of the Moscow Institute for Steel & Alloys and are part of a 25-person delegation on a three-week exchange program at Cal State Fullerton.
Speaking through an interpreter, Bekyashev said he has known Interim President Gennady Yanayev for 26 years, and is sure that he supports all of Mikhail Gorbachev’s reforms except for one--how fast the Soviet Union should enter a market economy.
Yanayev believes that if the change comes too soon, less competitive workers such as the elderly and mothers with young children will suffer because “the market will not let them in,” Bekyashev said. “Therefore, we should enter the market economy step by step.”
But the country must take that step forward and Soviet government officials know this, he added. “Without the international market, we will not survive.”
An engineering professor with the delegation also urged the audience to continue considering investing in the Soviet Union.
“My concept was, in general, during this speech (to say), ‘Don’t worry, and be ready to make your investment tomorrow,’ ” said German Surguchev. “Today, I can’t say don’t worry, but I surely can say. . . . ‘Be ready to make your investment the day after tomorrow.’ ”
Before the seminar started, several of the Soviets who speak English found themselves besieged outside the conference room by the media. They answered questions in cautious tones and said they only wanted to comment on economic issues and not on the troubled political situation back home.
“We’re looking forward to a good relationship with American businessmen,” said Vyacheslav Chernyshev, Intermet’s director general.
Asked if U.S. executives should trust investing in the Soviet Union after Gorbachev’s recent removal, he said, “We in the future will have a better situation.”
Chernyshev said he was able to phone his wife Monday night and an assistant early Tuesday morning. They assured him things are all right, he said.
Watching the impromptu press conference, Marriott’s general manager Curtis Dean expressed his sympathy for the foreign visitors. “They’re scheduled for a meeting. They didn’t expect this.”
