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By Russell Working
By the time Pat Martin showed up Monday at Dalrybbank’s Hotel Hyundai branch carrying her Visa card, she scarcely dared hope she could get any money. Martin and two other Rotarians from Longview, Washington, were visiting the Far East, and they had been trying all over town to get a little extra cash. But no such luck. Dalrybbank apologized and sent them elsewhere. Throughout Vladivostok since the ruble crisis began, those carrying credit cards have found it hard to draw cash. Even those with internationally recognized charge cards such as Eurocard, MasterCard and Visa haven’t had access to the credit limits they thought they could draw on in an emergency. “It started last week,” said bank manager Svetlana Belyayeva. “First we were cashing cards in dollars, but we stopped doing that because we had to keep the dollars for our own clients.” The problem, Belyayeva said, is that Moscow banks have frozen assets, leaving local offices with no option but to refuse to give out money. At Inkombank on Fokina Street, manager Oleg Panarin said bank managers had to act. Withdrawals at banks nationwide increased 100-fold since the Aug. 17 crisis began. “Right now no dollars are available,” he said. “People buy them, but nobody sells them.” Although non-customers couldn’t withdraw cash in many banks, most hotels that accepted credit cards continued doing so. Last week, many bank customers panicked and rushed the banks to withdraw their money before the ruble fell. At Sberbank on Aleutskaya Street, cashiers had stopped exchanging dollars for rubles. Swarms of people gathered around the tellers to withdraw their savings, whether dollars or rubles. “I think it’s not profitable to keep rubles in the bank anymore,” said Marina Shevchenko, 35. Instead, she planned to spend them on a refrigerator and other durable goods for her apartment. For those seeking money on credit cards, Dalnevostochny Bank’s branch at 19 Okeansky Avenue provided a break. The bank performed a paper sleight-of-hand, allowing people to withdraw dollars, then immediately cash them into rubles. Dalnevostochny’s press center spokeswoman, Irina Barannik, said the bank was offering this service on a day-to-day basis and didn’t know how long its cash reserves would hold out. Martin, the American, had a crash course in Russian economics during her trip. On her way to Vladivostok, her plane made an emergency landing in Anadyr in the far northeast, and the airport at first refused to sell fuel to the crew unless they could provide dollars, she said. Amid Russia’s crisis, Martin’s party admitted their situation wasn’t serious. Still, she said, “We Americans are so used to using our Visa cards that when we can’t, it’s like having your arm cut off.”
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