RUSSIA WRITES OFF NICARAGUA'S DEBT

MOSCOW, July 26 (RIA Novosti) - Russia and Nicaragua signed an agreement on writing off the debt of the Latin American country to the Russian Federation, said Sergei Kolotukhin, director of the Finance Ministry's Department of International Relations, State Debt and State Financial Assets.

"There is no Nicaragua's debt any longer", said Mr. Kolotukhin at a press conference on Monday.

According to him, it relates to Nicaragua's debt to the former Soviet Union, which is mainly the debt for military and commercial supplies.

The head of the Finance Ministry's department reminded the audience that signed in 1996 was an intergovernmental agreement on settling Nicaragua's debt to Russia. The debt amount exceeded $3.4 billion. Russia allowed Nicaragua a 90% discount from the debt amount and a 15-year payment of the remaining $344 million by instalments.

The Finance Ministry's spokesman said that in 1999 Nicaragua became a beneficiary of the Enhanced Initiative on Relieving the Debt Burden of the poorest states. In 2004, according to Mr. Kolotukhin, Nicaragua reached the final phase under the initiative and the Paris Club countries agreed to write off Nicaragua's debt completely.

"Russia also agreed to write off $344 million. Thus, there is no debt any longer", Mr. Kolotukhin pointed out.