Russia can’t afford crediting Belarus :: Charter'97 :: News

According to the financial body of Russia the issue of granting a loan to Belarus is still on the government’s agenda. Deputy head of international financial relations Konstantin Vishkovsky remarked that the money for crediting Belarus has not been found, yet. According to him, the budget can’t provide the required sum.

”The loan was requested generally for overcoming the complicated period of transferring to the new calculation procedure of gas payments. The payments made by the Belarusian side do not mean the relaxation of payment tension-the complications have still remained”, Telegraf quotes Konstantin Vishkovsky referring to the Belarusian service of the Radio Svaboda.

According to him the Belarusian party may encounter “certain temporal complications” with the Russian gas payments.” There is a request of the Belarusian side and we have been considering it, making necessary procedural drafting, creating preconditions for granting such a loan”, Konstantin Vishkovsky reported.

The financial ministry of Russia remarks that the loan to Belarus can be granted only on the commercial basis. ”There are a lot of different factors. It is necessary to find the funding source for it. Due to the corrections introduced to the budget the USD 1.5 billion amount requested by Belarus from Russia has to be looked for somewhere. It is feasible theoretically but the practical work should be done for that “, Konstantin Vishkovsky declared.

According to the Gazprom official representative Sergey Kuprianov, in compliance with the previously signed contract the deadline for Belarus to make settlements for the consumed gas is 23rd of each month.

However, the Gazprom representative refused to either confirm or deny the fact of Belarus gas settlements for August. Sergey Kuprianov also mentioned that the gas price for Belarus is to be changed in compliance with the formula signed in the contract.