Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said on March 15 that Russia was considering providing $1 billion credit to Belarus. Finance Minister explained that Belarus would "have to fulfill certain conditions associated with structural reforms" in order to obtain this loan. According to Kudrin, the requirements may be similar to the ones of the IMF.
The head of the Russian Finance Ministry said that Belarus had recently asked the Russian government for $1 billion loan, as well as $2 billion loan from the EurAsEC crisis fund. Alexei Kudrin said that the parties were currently conducting the negotiations, but he could not answer when the process for the allocation of these loans would complete, BelTA informs.
Russia can Provide $ 6 Billion for NPP Construction
In turn, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin reported on March 15 that Russia was planning to provide Belarus with a loan for NPP construction, a total of about $6 billion. According to the Russian Prime Minister, the amount of the loan depends on the equipment that customer country produces or not at home. Vladimir Putin also reported that the parties were planning to sign the loan agreement during the month.
Russian Prime Minister also noted that the parties were currently discussing the financing of infrastructure construction of the future nuclear power plants, as well as Russian possible credits. Despite the fact that the customer-country usually self-fund infrastructure construction, Vladimir Putin did not rule out the participation of Russia in this process.
In general, Vladimir Putin noted that Russia would subsidize the Belarusian economy by $4.3 billion in 2011 due to the duty-free oil supplies to Belarus.
