Russia was vast and rich in resources, but at present, the resource East Africa "depended" on most from Russia was oil. More than half of Russia's annual oil output was hauled away by East Africa, so the Tsarist Russian government naturally drew Ambassador Kroll's attention to a certain extent by dangling oil as bait.
But it was only attention. Though East Africa itself lacked oil resources, it was not like Germany, which practically had none at all. Moreover, East Africa currently had quite a few foreign sources of oil.
"As a friend, tell me honestly—have you Russians run into some kind of difficulty lately?" Ambassador Kroll asked.
He vaguely sensed that the Russian government's mindset had changed. This was not the attitude the Russian government had shown in the past.
"Alas, for Russia, difficulties have never ended. The problem is financial pressure. Having no money has always been Russia's greatest hardship, and in recent years, because of the economic crisis in other European countries, there have been fewer nations and private individuals willing to lend money," Count Kadel said.
The economic crisis had not struck Russia alone. Other countries likewise needed cash to stabilize their economies. Meanwhile, under the crisis, Russian enterprises had gone bankrupt, defaulted on debts, and accumulated serious bad debts. This not only reduced the Russian government's sources of revenue, but also made it harder for Russia to borrow from the international community.
All these factors had driven Russia's economy into a vicious cycle. Of course, with the economic crisis nearing its end, conditions were not worse than in the past few years. Yet Russia was borrowing more money than before, making Kroll believe there had to be some abnormality within Russia that he did not know about.
After all, East Africa and Russia were "not familiar"