Moscow may deny loan to Minsk
Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov announced on Saturday that Russia had not made a decision yet whether to allocate $600 million government loan to Belarus. Siluanov noted that Belarus might not receive a loan in all, reports Interfax news agency.
According to the Russian Finance Minister, the difficulties with the allocation of funds will not affect the plan of the two countries to integrate the economies. Now, a "road map" is developed, which will determine the specific tasks for the Russian and Belarus authorities.
Belarus requwested the loan to refinance its current $3.2 billion foreign debt. Protracted negotiations with Russia prompted Belarus to borrow money from China. In July, Belarusian Deputy Finance Minister Andrei Belkovets informed about the conclusion of these negotiations.