MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Russia has contributed a total of $700 million to help Kyrgyzstan integrate into the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
"We allocated $200 million for this adaptation. We furthermore created a development fund in which Russia deposited another $500 million. In total, 31 projects are being implemented. Several hundred are to be implemented soon," Putin said in an interview with a Kyrgyz journalist, which aired in a RenTV broadcast on Saturday.
Kyrgyzstan, one of the less developed states in the bloc, joined the EAEU in August 2015, months after the other states joined in January that year. Its accession process included the adaption of its economy to EAEU standards, as well as changes to its legislation and customs infrastructure.
The EAEU, comprising Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan, is an international organization that encourages regional economic integration through the free movement of goods, services, and people within the union.
In late June, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told journalists that almost 50 countries had expressed their interest in cooperating with the EAEU.
