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Now that oil prices are so low, our oil industry has become a burden to us, not only does it not bring us any income, but on the contrary, it needs to provide us with subsidies. Pen %Fun%Cabinet www.biquge.info≦≧," Nikolai said.

"Yes, now, we can't afford to continue, we are extracting oil to make money, not to invest money in the oil industry, and the oil pipeline we are building now has been forced to stop, and if this continues, our oil industry will collapse." Fedor said: "We need to react to the top. ”

"Above? To whom do we react now? Nikolai asked rhetorically.

This is a rather complicated issue, originally, this problem is not a problem, just react directly to the general secretary, but now that the general secretary has been in the hospital for several months, internal information has come out, the general secretary, it is likely that it is almost dead. Since the general secretary is not there, then it should be reported to the second-in-command of the country. However, the senile Chernenko did not appoint a successor, and now, the secret feud between Gorbachev and Glishin has begun, and whoever they report to will be considered as a cronie, and when the time comes, if the other comes to power and does not get it right, they are at risk of being cleansed, and they are not willing to take risks. ≦≧

"Two ministers, Secretary Gorbachev is looking for two." That's when they got the news.

Gorbachev took the initiative to find them? The two knew, it seems, that they had to report to Gorbachev first.

Yes, Gorbachev was looking for them.

Originally, Gorbachev did not have the energy to take care of this, and his main focus was on work. It's all about how to get the support of the Central Committee. But Gorbachev now has to ask.

Because, Gorbachev has just come out of the Arbat Street in Moscow, where there is the headquarters of another intelligence agency of the Soviet Union, the GRU.

When it comes to Soviet intelligence, almost everyone thinks of the KGB. This is a well-known intelligence agency in the world, and in contrast to the KGB, the GRU's reputation is not resounding. But it is also a very important intelligence agency. ≦≧

GRU is the abbreviation of the Intelligence Department of the General Staff of the Soviet Army, codenamed 44388 Military Department, which originated after October **. Lenin signed a decree establishing the "Registry of Field Staff of the Republic", a nationally unified supreme leadership organ of military intelligence on the basis of the established military intelligence agencies of the Russian Red Army units, the predecessor of the GRU.

However, the GRU was hit hard by the Great Purge that followed. It was not until after the outbreak of World War II that military intelligence was re-valued by the Kremlin, and Philip Golikov was appointed head of the intelligence department of the General Staff. Under his leadership, the GRU was quickly and efficiently functioning again, with a steady stream of information being transmitted from all over the world to the GRU headquarters in Moscow. The GRU work is outstanding. It has successively established the Trepal intelligence network, the "Red Band" intelligence network, and the "Lado" intelligence network in Europe. Zolga Intelligence Network in Asia; The American company Amtog provided effective intelligence support for the Soviet Union's fighting.

After World War II, the GRU was depressed for a while, but the advent of the Cold War brought the GRU back to life. The GRU occupied half of the country's intelligence until the KGB began to rise, gradually forming two major systems: national security and **. ≦≧ and the KGB has never been able to replace the military status of the GRU.

GRU leaders, as assistants to the Minister of Defence, can indirectly participate in decision-making on major issues. Therefore, this secret intelligence organization is also the target of Gorbachev's wooing.

Who knows, when Gorbachev was talking with the current leader of the GRU, Alexander. Alexander was very dissatisfied and said: "Although our intelligence department is not as huge as the KGB, we are also the most important military intelligence organization of the Soviet Union, we have more than 5,000 people in our headquarters, and more than 1,400 spies sent to foreign countries. 1 dollar can only be exchanged for 0.6 rubles, and in later generations, after the collapse of the USSR, the ruble began to depreciate sharply), it is not enough for us to use at all, but now, it is already March, we have not received 100 million rubles, and our intelligence work cannot be carried out at all! ”

Speaking of which, Alexander was full of complaints, wanting to let the horses run, and not giving the horses grazing, where is such a reason!

Hearing Alexander's complaints, Gorbachev knew that the time had come to get the GRU leader to support him: "Yes, the GRU's funds must not be in arrears, and I immediately went to Finance Minister Gosteev and asked him to meet the GRU's budget first, no matter how difficult the finances were." ≦≧"Hearing Gorbachev's words, Alexander was very happy, however, Gorbachev scratched his head.

He did not expect that the Soviet Union would be so poor in the months when he was not in charge of finances. All along, he was preparing for maximum power, ignoring the most important economic lifeline of the Soviet Union.

As the secretary of the Central Committee, as a former chief of agriculture, economy, and ideology, Gorbachev knew that energy exports played an important role in the Soviet economy, which was a support for him after becoming general secretary. It takes money to reform the country, and it takes money to realize his ideals. Although he already had a plan to gradually disarm after coming to power, to reduce the number of nuclear weapons, and even to jump out of the mud pit in Afghanistan, reduce the investment, to improve the current situation in the Soviet Union, improve the people's lives, but saving is not the ultimate way, the income is the most important thing, supporting the operation of the huge red empire, energy exports are already the most important source of income. ≦≧

Now, with the finance minister sitting next to Gorbachev and opposite the ministers of economic development and trade and oil, a simple round table was held.

"Originally, last year, due to the high oil prices, our oil revenues were okay, at the highest to more than 80 US dollars a barrel, with high oil prices, we increased our foreign exchange earnings, which can be exchanged for the grain we need, although there was no drought last year, our food shortage, there is still a gap. But this year, oil prices have been falling, and now they have fallen to nine dollars, a difference of nearly ten times. Nikolai said.

"Most of our crude oil is buried under the frozen soil, although the cost of extraction is lower than that of seabed mining, but it is definitely higher than the cost of shallow crude oil extraction in those countries in the Middle East, now, those oil-producing countries in the Middle East, because of the contradiction with the United Kingdom, in a vain attempt to collapse the British oil industry, so, have been increasing crude oil production, world oil prices, so they have pulled it down, the main oil-producing countries Saudi Arabia and Iraq, now the output, are almost twice as much as before, in this case, World oil prices have fallen to their current levels, and the oil industry of the British has always been losing money, and so have ours. Oil Minister Fedor said.

In this case, he had to come up with sufficient reasons to show that Fedor had been studying the current oil situation for a long time, and that the conclusions he had come to analyze, though without the help of the intelligence agencies, were almost close to the truth.

Iraq and Britain are pinching to the death? Gorbachev frowned, although he was happy to see Iraq and Britain at odds with each other, but the low price of oil caused by this was unacceptable to him.

"We are now operating at a loss, our oil field, not bringing us profits, we still have to invest in it, the oil pipeline we are building has also been suspended, we have reduced oil exports to a minimum, so that our losses can be smaller." Fedor continued.

"Our country's various expenditures are very large, so we can only reduce all kinds of expenditures now, we are not deliberately delaying and withholding funds from various departments, but we now do not have enough funds to support. In particular, the money we borrowed from the Paris Club last time is about to expire and we have not yet repaid it. The Minister of Finance said.

Who would have imagined that the huge red empire is not only empty in treasury, but also in debt, and now, it can't even pay off the debt!

"Gostev, don't we have any other way?" Gorbachev asked.

"Yes." "We can use our gold reserves as long as the general secretary approves it," Gostev said. ”

Gold reserves! Gorbachev's heart tightened.

The Soviet Union is one of the world's leading gold producers, second only to South Africa in terms of output, reaching more than 500 tons per year, and the Soviet Union's gold reserves have reached more than 3,000 tons.

Gold also played a great role in the national economy of the Soviet Union, using gold as a means of payment, introducing advanced technology and equipment from Western countries, importing grain and feed, and using the method of selling gold in exchange for hard currency to raise foreign exchange funds, and regarded gold as a means to balance the foreign trade balance and reduce the deficit.

However, the Soviet Union did not sell gold in large quantities if it were not for the emergency, and the Soviet Union mainly used gold as an important means of balancing the balance of payments. Only when the international gold price soars will they sell part of their gold reserves in pursuit of maximum profits.

The use of gold reserves requires the nod of the general secretary, but now, I am afraid that the time is not right.

"Isn't there any other way?" Gorbachev then asked.

"The main source of the decline in crude oil prices is the oil producers in the Middle East, and if they are willing to reduce oil production and oil prices rise, we can continue to rely on oil to increase revenues." Fedor said.

Hearing this, Gorbachev already had a plan in his heart.