Subject: From Moscow

Dear Mariano,
Crossing my fingers and knocking at the wooden table I thank you for good news. Only on Monday I got your messages: we had vacation up to 10 January. I have read Mr. Gould’s Friday message to you and I do not agree with his wrong arithmetic. I also do not like his too complicated, but at whole right, logic. Nevertheless I’ll follow his logic since it can give us right results.

I received 70,000.00 Euro (74,502.89 USD) and returned to Brussels 57,313.21 Euro (61,000.00 USD ) Thus in Moscow remained 12,686.79 Euro (13,502.89 USD). INTAS paid for equipment 51,465.39 Euro (54,766.00 USD). That means the total INTAS’ money for Moscow team is: 51,465.39 Euro (54,766.00 USD) + 12,686.79 Euro (13,502.89 USD) = 64,152.18 Euro (68,278.79 USD). Thus INTAS’ debt is: 75,500.00 Euro - 64,152.18 Euro = 11,347.82 Euro = 5,500.00 Euro + 5,847.82 Euro (6,224.00 USD), which was the thing to be shown. The same result we can get very easy. INTAS received 61,000 USD and paid for equipment 54,776 USD, i.e. INTAS’ debt for the first advance payment is: 61,000 - 54,776 = 6,224 USD. The last payment is 5,500 Euro. That means the total debt of INTAS is: 6,224 USD + 5,500 Euro, what absolutely right is pointed out in your Final Report. How explain it to Mr. Gould more simply, I do not know. Mr. Gould get the strange sum of 8,774.5 Euro instead of the right value 11,347.82 Euro using a tricky game with transformation USD into Euro. For example, if we spent money for equipment then 1 Euro=1.060 USD (75,280 : 71,019 = 1,060); if we transferred money from Moscow to Brussels to buy the same equipment, then 1 Euro=1.143 USD (61,000: 53,375 = 1.143). When we for the both operations will use the same coefficient 1.060 we get 61,000 : 1.060 = 57,547 Euro and no 53,375 Euro. For my calculations I used coefficient 1.064327, which I get from real sums in USD written in papers I had from the Mosbusiness Bank. I can send you copies of this documents (in Russian). I think it is necessary to repeat your payment request from the Final Report (Annex E). By the way, my passport number is I - MI-O, but no I - MI - O.   I-O is a Russian letter which sounds like you [ju:]. ( This text contains Cyrillic letter. It is the reason why we send the same text by Fax ).

Bye, your friend Yuri  from Moskow.

P.S. I am very glad that you expected to visit Moscow. Velcome, Mariano, your friends are waiting for you. I promise to you that your second visit will be better than the first. The reason is obvious: you’ll come not as coordinator of the project, as a friend.
P.P.S. St. Michael has no great importance in our culture. I do not know why. He is the Archangel, not a man. He was the leader in the heaven battle against the forces of hell. But St. George, a martyr under Diocletian, is very important person in Russia. In all new Russian coins you can see St. George the Great killing the dragon. Generally believed that this legend was born in Italy.