The Russian Government issued a regulation that if a relevant agreement was signed within 15 days of its publication, Belarus would be issued a USD 1.55 billion loan for a 15-year period.
The loan’s interest rate would be floating and depend on the cost of Russia’s government securities on the Russian market. The loan’s repayment would be deferred for five years thus not immediately putting additional burden on Belarus’ budget. Most likely, the share of the Russian ruble in mutual payments between the countries would increase. Belarus would use the loan to repay the bridge loan from VTB Bank and will not affect the size of her international reserves.
