MOSCOW, November 13 (RIA Novosti) - Russia and Belarus signed on Thursday an agreement to grant Minsk a $2 billion loan, and agreed to switch to rubles when trading in oil and gas, the Belarusian finance minister said.
"This will be our contribution to giving the ruble the status of a regional reserve currency," Andrei Kharkovets said.
Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin earlier said $1 billion would be lent this year, and the other half in 2009.
In late 2007, Russia and Belarus signed an intergovernmental agreement to grant Minsk a $1.5 billion stabilization loan for 15 years. Belarus requested the loan from Russia to pay for energy supplies.
Russia's energy giant Gazprom is planning to switch to market prices for Belarus, one of the leading transit countries for Russian natural gas supplies to Europe.
