By Svea Herbst-Bayliss
NEW YORK, Aug 13 (Reuters) - As Russia's financial markets
buckled amid a call that the rouble should be devalued, the man
financial markets blamed for the latest tremors attempted late
Thursday to distance himself from Russia's troubles.
"The turmoil in Russian financial markets is not due to
anything I said or did," international financier George Soros
said in a written statement released in New York hours after he
published a letter to the editor in a British newspaper that
helped wipe out a modest market recovery.
He also insisted that his fund has, "no short position in
the rouble and (has) no intention of shorting the currency",
and stressed, "our portfolio would be hurt by any
devaluation."
To Wall Street analysts, Soros's statement underscored
financial markets' extraordinary nervousness and the fact that
George Soros may not wish to be remembered as the man who was
instrumental in bringing down Russia.
"His comment indicates how tenuous the situation in
international financial markets is and that nobody wants to be
seen to be in the position of causing further turbulence," said
Chris Widness, international economist at Chase Securities.
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