Russia's President Vladimir Putin, left, shakes hands with Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, right, and Russia's PM Viktor Zubkov, center, stands behind them.
Photo: Dmitry Azarov
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Russia Transferred $1.5bn to Belarus
Some $1.5 billion has been transferred to Minsk as the state loan, Russia’s Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov announced during the bilateral meeting with his Belarus counterpart Sergei Sidorsky. “This money will go to Minsk today,” Zubkov said.
Once the presidents agreed on loan’s allocation, “Russia immediately set to work and attained the respective agreements.” “It enabled Belarus to get $1.5 billion before this year-end,” Zubkov said.
Russia and Belarus entered into the $1.5-billion loan agreement December 20, 2007. The document was signed by Russia’s Vice Premier, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin and Belarus Finance Minister Nikolay Korbut. Belarus gets money for 15 years at LIBOR +0.75 percent.
The LIBOR stands at around 5 percent today, so the loan is being provided “at slightly less than 6 percent,” Kudrin said, specifying that the agreement sets forth the five-year grace period for settling the principal amount.
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