Russian maverick backs barter to combat crisis

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A maverick Russian businessman who blew his fortune on a failed presidential bid is convinced barter is back in vogue.

German Sterligov says his scheme to trade products online, unveiled as Russia faces its first recession in a decade, has already grabbed the interest of Uzbek cotton merchants, St Petersburg car dealers and leading truck maker Kamaz (KMAZ.MM).

"The worse it gets, the better it is for us," Sterligov, 41, told Reuters in an interview in his offices on the 26th floor of a skyscraper in the Moscow City business complex.

"We are the experts when it comes to crises."

Russia's commodity-focused economy has been hit hard by the global economic crisis. The rouble has lost over a fifth of its value since November, and some heavy industrial producers claim to be owed hundreds of millions of dollars as debts go unpaid.

That's where Sterligov, with his flowing beard and closely cropped hair, comes in.

He says his Anti-Crisis Settlement and Accounting Center (ASAC) is more advanced than the rudimentary barter trades so common in post-Soviet markets. Then, timber firms traded lumber for logging equipment and farm workers swapped meat for fuel.

"It is totally different now, because of these things," he said. A Sony laptop sits on his desk and he holds up a Nokia mobile phone, revealing the dirt beneath his fingernails.

"We have a global computer network."

Sterligov founded Moscow's first commodity exchange in the 1990s and expanded into a range of businesses controlled by his Alisa holding company.

A failed 2004 presidential bid put him at odds with the Kremlin, leading to more than four years of self-imposed exile on a farm 80 kilometers (50 miles) from Moscow.

He has rented the Moscow City office space since November, commuting home to his wife and five children every evening.

Though he claims to have lost his fortune as a result of his failed foray into politics, Sterligov was able to salvage the few million euros necessary to set up ASAC.

"I got the money from under an oak tree," he said. "When I understood there was a financial crisis, I dug it out."

EXCHANGE DATABASE

Sterligov doesn't like the word "barter." He sees his network, en.artc-alisa.ru, as a bourse where interested parties can exchange goods through his database. ASAC collects 1 percent in cash based on the value of completed transactions.

Customers can search the database for products they require, and trade their own production in return.

"In times of crisis ... barter offers a means by which to avoid the usually time-consuming and often fruitless search for bank and other forms of financing," his Web site says.

Sterligov said he expects to have a fully operational network in place within two to three months, with offices in London, New York and other international business centers, as well as Russia.

"We have had 2,000 to 3,000 applications (from potential participants), but we need hundreds of millions," he said.

Sterligov turned away the Uzbek cotton merchants because he felt they overvalued their goods, but he said ASAC had signed contracts with Kamaz and combine harvester maker RostSelMash.

Kamaz, which halted its main assembly line for the third time on January 29 as it clears a stockpile of unsold trucks, declined to comment.

Three used car dealers from St Petersburg, meanwhile, waited outside Sterligov's office. They have gotten pummeled by the crisis, as well as new legislation raising auto import duties.

Barter, said one, could be an effective way to manage their inventory.

"There is still demand, but customers no longer have any possibilities. We used to sell on credit and now customers can't get any money from the banks," Maksim Tolmachev, the 36-year old owner of Auction-Auto, said.

(Editing by Robin Paxton)