"Now that oil prices are so low, our oil industry has become a burden to us. Not only can we bring us no income, but we also need subsidies," Nicholas said.

"Yes, now we are no longer able to continue. We exploit oil to make money, not to invest money in the oil industry. The oil pipeline we are building now has been forced to stop work. If this continues, our oil industry will collapse." Fedor said: "We need to react to the above."

"Above? Who are we responding to now?" Nicholas asked back.

This is a very complicated issue. Originally, this issue was not a problem, and it was enough to just react to the General Secretary directly. However, the General Secretary has been in the hospital for several months. Internal news came out that the General Secretary may be almost out of reach. Since the General Secretary is not here, he should report to the second-in-command of the country. However, the old Chernenko did not designate a successor. Now, the secret battle between Gorbachev and Grishen has begun. Whoever they report to will be considered to be the confidant of whom. At that time, if another person comes to power and doesn't do it well, they will be at risk of being cleaned up and they are unwilling to take risks.

"Two ministers, Secretary Gorbachev finds two." At this time, they received the news.

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

Yes, Gorbachev is looking for them.

Originally, Gorbachev had no energy to take care of these things. His main focus was on how to get the support of the Central Committee. However, Gorbachev had to ask now.

Because, Gorbachev had just come out of Arbat Street in Moscow, where it was another Soviet intelligence agency, the headquarters of Gruu.

When it comes to the Soviet intelligence agencies, almost everyone will think of the KGB, which is a world-famous intelligence agency. Compared with the KGB, although the Gru Utah is not well-known, it is also a very important intelligence agency.

Gruu is the abbreviation of the Intelligence Department of the General Staff of the Soviet Army, code-named 44388 Military Department, which originated after the October Revolution. Lenin signed a decree and established the "Republic Field Staff Registration Office", which is a national unified military intelligence leadership agency established on the basis of the military intelligence agencies established by the Russian Red Army units. It is the predecessor of Gruu.

However, the later Great Purge was severely damaged. It was not until the outbreak of World War II that military intelligence was taken seriously by the Kremlin and Philip Golikov was appointed as the Minister of Intelligence Department of the General Staff. Under his leadership, Gruu quickly and efficiently operated, and a steady stream of intelligence was continuously transmitted from all over the world to the headquarters of Gruu U Moscow. Gruu U's work was outstanding. The European Trepal Intelligence Network, the "Red Band" Intelligence Network, the "Rado" Intelligence Network; the Zolg Intelligence Network in Asia; and the American Amtog Company provided effective intelligence support for the Soviet battle.

After World War II, Gru U was depressed for a while, but the arrival of the Cold War made Gru U active again. Gru U occupied half of the national intelligence, until the KGB began to rise and gradually formed two major systems: national security and police. The KGB was unable to replace Gru U's military status.

The leader of Gruu, as an assistant to the Minister of Defense, can indirectly participate in decision-making on major issues. Therefore, this secret intelligence organization is also the target of Gorbachev's favor.

Unexpectedly, when Gorbachev was talking to Alexander, the current leader of Gruu, Alexander said with great dissatisfaction: "Although our intelligence department is not as large as the KGB, we are also the most important military intelligence organization of the Soviet Union. There are more than 5,000 people in our headquarters and more than 1,400 foreign intelligence personnel sent to foreign countries. For the Soviet intelligence work, we need sufficient funds, and the annual budget of one billion rubles (the Soviet rubles are very strong. 1 US dollar can only be exchanged for 0.6 rubles. In later generations, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the rubles began to depreciate significantly), which is not enough for us to use. But now, it is already March, and we have not received 100 million rubles of funds, and our intelligence work cannot be carried out at all!"

Speaking of this, Alexander complained that he wanted the horse to run away but did not give it to the horse. How could this be the reason!

Hearing Alexander's complaint, Gorbachev knew that when he wanted the leader of Gruu to support him, he came: "Yes, Gruu's funds must not be owed. I immediately went to Finance Minister Gostev, so that no matter how difficult the finances are, he had to meet Gruu's budget first."

Alexander was very happy to hear Gorbachev's words, but Gorbachev scratched his head.

He did not expect that in the past few months when he was not in charge of finance, the Soviet Union was so poor. He had always been preparing to fight for the greatest power and ignored the most important economic lifeline of the Soviet Union.

As the secretary of the central government, as he once focused on agriculture, economy, ideology and other aspects, Gorbachev knew that energy exports played an important role in the Soviet economy, and this was a reliance for him after he became the General Secretary. Reforming this country requires funds, and realizing his ideals requires funds. Although he had already planned to gradually disarmament after he came to power, reduce the number of nuclear weapons, and even jump out of the mud pit of Afghanistan, and reduce investment to improve the current situation of the Soviet Union and improve people's lives, savings are not the ultimate solution. The main thing is to support the operation of the huge red empire, and energy exports are already the most important source of income.

Now, Gorbachev is sitting next to him, opposite the Minister of Economic Development and Trade and Oil, holding a simple roundtable.

"Originally, due to the high oil prices, our oil revenue was still good. It was at its highest point of more than 80 US dollars per barrel. With the high oil prices, we increased our foreign exchange income to exchange for the food we needed. Although there was no drought last year, there was still a grain shortage. But this year, oil prices have been falling, and now it has fallen to nine US dollars, which is nearly ten times the difference." Nicholas said.

"Most of our crude oil is buried under the permafrost. Although the mining cost is lower than that of seabed mining, it is definitely higher than that of the shallow crude oil in the Middle East. Now, the oil-producing countries in the Middle East have tried to destroy the British oil industry because of their contradictions with the UK, so they have been increasing crude oil production. The world oil prices have been lowered by them. The main oil-producing countries, Saudi Arabia and Iraq, have almost twice the output of the past. In this case, the world oil prices have fallen to the current level. The British oil industry has been losing money, and so are ours." Oil Minister Fedor said.

In this situation, he must provide sufficient reasons to explain that Fedor has been studying the current oil situation for a long time. Although the conclusion he analyzed was almost close to the facts without the help of the intelligence agencies.

Iraq and Britain were tying to death? Gorbachev frowned. Although he was happy to see the evil between Iraq and Britain, the oil price caused by this was too low, which was unacceptable.

"We are now operating at a loss. Our oil fields have not brought us profits. We still have to invest in them. The oil pipeline we are under construction has also been shut down. We have reduced oil exports to a minimum so that our losses can be reduced." Fedor continued.

"The expenses in our country are very large, so now we can only compress various expenses. We are not deliberately delaying and deducting funds from various departments, but we now do not have enough funds to support them. In particular, the funds we borrowed from the Paris Club last time are about to expire, and we have no funds to repay them." said the Minister of Finance.

Who could have imagined that the huge red empire was not only empty in the treasury, but also was living by borrowing debts. Until now, they could not even pay back the debts they borrowed!

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

"Yes," said Gostev: "We can use our gold reserves as long as the General Secretary approves."

Gold reserves! Gorbachev's heart tightened.

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

Gold also had a great role in the Soviet national economy. It used gold as a means of payment to introduce advanced technology and equipment from Western countries, import food and feed, and used the method of selling gold for hard currency to raise foreign exchange funds. Gold was regarded as a means of balancing foreign trade revenue and expenditure and reducing deficits. This is a means for gold to play.

However, if it were not for the emergency, the Soviet Union did not sell large amounts of gold. The Soviet Union mainly used gold as an important means to balance the balance of payments. Only when the international gold price surged will they throw out some of their gold reserves in order to seek the best interests.

To use gold reserves, we need to pass the General Secretary’s nod, but now, I’m afraid the time is not right.

"Is there no other way?" Gorbachev continued.

"The main source of the decline in crude oil prices is oil-producing countries in the Middle East. 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 sentence, Gorbachev had already made plans in his heart.

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Chapter completed!