Vice-Premier, Minister of Finance of Russia Alexey Kudrin said Moscow would take into account the position of the official Minsk to restrict the work of Russian mass media in lending to Belarus. "The Government of the Russian Federation is concerned about Belarusian administration's measures to curb or restrict the Russian media," said the head of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation.
In such cases, «we see a decline in transparency, as well as disrespectful or unfriendly steps with regard to Russian media,» RIA «Novosti» quoted Alexei Kudrin.
«Unfortunately, we must take this into consideration when loaning — if such restrictive measures are repeated in the coming months, then we’ll certainly take steps to limit credit support to Belarus,» said Russian Deputy Premier.
Belarus Faces Shortages, Kudrin
The Finance Minister called upon the Belarusian authorities not to restrict the growth of commodity prices, otherwise, in his opinion, it could lead to shortages.
«Limiting the growth of prices in crisis times, when prices are also a certain indicator of the actual situation, may lead to deficit getting increased,» said the head of the Russian Finance Ministry and explained that prices reflect real costs, and it would be unprofitable for producers to deal with reduced prices.
«For example, if the devaluation of the Belarusian ruble has already been carried out by 55%, it means that all imported goods in the domestic market should go in price by 55%. Reduced prices will bring no goods,» said Alexey Kudrin.
As Telegraf previously reported, June 14, President Alexander Lukashenko signed an agreement on the EurAsEC allocation of $3 billion loan to Belarus. The first tranche of $800 million should arrive this month and the remaining amount will be transferred to Belarus in five tranches of $440 million within three years.
