We should be asking our respective gov'ts to stand up for us here. Canada should state clearly that the KRY and GRZ investments and contracts are covered by the BIT and that Canada will be behind us in any arbitration procedures. Maybe the U.S. should say it as well. KRY is owned substantially by non-institutional american and canadian investors and any settlement should reflect what we paid for our shares. Anything less and and we are getting screwed and the BIT is supposed to prevent that. The Russian component is what makes this way bigger than just KRY and GRZ. They are cheerfully stepping in and displacing North American co.'s and there is no mention yet of compensation. It just doesn't seem like something we should take lying down. The isolation of Cuba occured because they nationalised American property without compensation and maybe Chavy should be told that that a similar or worse fate awaits him if he doesn't start to play fair. The fact is that VZers might even think twice about electing him if they think something like an economic blockade or military action could result.

I think that the seeds of this were planted quite some time ago. Rusoro came out of nowhere to take over Goldfields VZ operations and they have continued to consolidate their position in VZ. It would be naive to think that taking over KRY, GRZ and anything else worth having wasn't discussed if not planned months or even years ago. There may very well be a master plan here.

The recent statements by Hugo amd Sanz about taking us over could just be away of softening us up to accept a lowball offer. We will be so happy to get anything that $1.00/sh. will look good.

The big positions held by Tradewinds etc. will count for alot in any decisions about accepting buy out offers. It's not impossible that these positions were taken on behalf of some mystery entity to facilitate a low priced takeover. The cost of those shares will be chump change to anyone who ends up with LC.