Russia Says It’s Ready to Pay All of Soviet Foreign Debt : Finances: The federation worries that Western fears about Moscow’s ability to pay is making it difficult for the nation to get new loans and foreign assistance.

The Russian Federation, seeking to take on the central role of the crumbling central government of Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, said Wednesday that it is prepared to pay the Soviet Union’s entire foreign debt, without direct contributions from other republics.

Russian officials are concerned that Western fears over Moscow’s inability to meet its debt obligations is making it difficult for the Soviet Union to attract new loans and foreign assistance. The Soviets, for example, have found it tough to take advantage of U.S. loan guarantees to buy American grain this fall because Western banks don’t want to lend money to Moscow--even with Washington’s guarantees.

As a result, Russian officials told the Bush Administration on Wednesday that the government of Russian Federation President Boris N. Yeltsin is ready to take on responsibility for the country’s foreign debt, which some estimates have put as high as $81 billion. In return, it will seek other forms of compensation from the smaller Soviet republics.

That marks a change from a policy announced just recently, when the Soviet republics, increasingly fearful that the central government couldn’t meet its foreign obligations, reached an agreement to share the burden of repaying the nation’s foreign debt.

But Andrei Zverev, deputy finance minister of Russia, said at a press conference here that Russian officials have determined that the other republics are incapable of handling the debts and would default if forced to pay their share.

“The Russian republic is the only one in a position to do this,” Zverev said. “This will be preferable for both the creditors and the republics. We are doing this because, even if the other republics took their share on, they couldn’t pay, and it would come back to Russia in the end. It is better to start out with a clean slate, instead.”

Zverev said the decision has not been made final by the Yeltsin government, but Russian officials are already discussing their proposal with the United States and other Western industrial powers.

A senior U.S. Treasury official responded cautiously to Zverev on Wednesday, and asserted that the Bush Administration still believes that all 12 remaining republics will be involved in handling the Soviet debt. “In the last two weeks, there have been a number of statements by Russian officials concerning Soviet debt. . . .” the official said. “These statements reaffirm the position established and agreed to by the 12 republics, regarding their responsibility in the servicing of debt.”

Zverev conceded that Western officials, wary of Russia’s ability to shoulder the debt load by itself, have responded cautiously to the idea.

The federation expects to free up some of Russia’s resources by cutting off subsidies to the central government, many of whose ministries Russian Federation officials plan to take over. Zverev said that the federation, which accounts for about 61% of the Soviet Union’s gross national product, has contributed 24 billion rubles to help finance the central government ministries so far this year.