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Russia expects nothing from Belarus in return for loan

Russian expects nothing in return for the loan promised to Belarus, Ambassador Aleksandr Surikov told reporters in Minsk on Friday.

Following his meeting with Alyaksandr Lukashenka in Moscow on December 25, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Russia would provide an additional financial assistance package of up to $2 billion to Belarus in 2014.

“This is not the first loan,” Mr. Surikov said. “In 2008 and 2009, Russia granted a $3-billion stabilization loan. In 2012, the Anti-crisis Fund [of the Eurasian Economic Community] provided an additional $3 billion. And now negotiations on providing $2 billion in loans, which lasted for a year, have successfully concluded. Of the amount, $450 million will come from the budget of the Russian Federation. As for the other part, we are looking for possible sources. The situation in our country is not easy either.”

Russia and Belarus spearhead all integration processes in the post-Soviet region, Mr. Surikov noted. “We act in two frameworks: the Union State and the Eurasian Economic Union currently under construction,” he said. “We want to continue in these frameworks.”

Mr. Surikov stressed that Russia’s decision to buy $15 billion worth of Eurobonds from the Ukrainian government would not affect financial assistance to Belarus. “One thing does not prevent the other,” he said. “Russia does have resources. The last meeting of the Supreme State Council of the Union State confirms this.”

“Everything we do in our relations with Ukraine and Belarus is done on a mutually beneficial basis,” Mr. Surikov said. “Eurobonds are not for free. They will be repaid and this $15 billion will also be paid back.”