MINSK, January 4 (RIA Novosti) – Belarus has received the first part of a $2 billion Russian loan, worth $450 million, a spokesman for the Belarusian National Bank said Saturday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting of the Supreme State Council of the Russia-Belarus Union State in December that Moscow would provide Minsk with up to $2 billion in loans in 2014.
Later Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said the funds would be provided from the Russian 2014 budget in the form of an intergovernmental loan for 10 years at 4-percent annual interest.
Siluanov did not specify the sources of financing for the rest of the loan, but reiterated that no money for it would be taken from Russia’s National Welfare Fund, an off-budget reserve of accumulated oil and gas revenue.
Russia and its close ally Belarus are formally a Union State, and are also part of the Customs Union along with Kazakhstan.
