Russia urges US budget fix 'as quickly as possible'

WASHINGTON - Agence France-Presse

A protester has his mouth covered with a dollar bill during a demonstration in front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington Oct. 3, urging congress to end the federal government shutdown. AFP photo

Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov called on the U.S. on Oct. 11 to quickly resolve the political stalemate over the U.S. budget and debt ceiling.

Speaking in a meeting of the Group of 20 finance ministers, Siluanov said: "I would like to express our wish that our U.S. counterparts will find a solution to this as quickly as possible... Otherwise we can't move ahead."

Siluanov, who was speaking at a closed meeting inadvertently broadcast publicly, said he was not confident that the White House and Republicans in Congress were on a path to reach a compromise that would reopen closed parts of the government and raise the country's debt ceiling to avoid a default on payments.


"There doesn't seem to be a prospect for that," he said.