Belarus does not need a government loan from Russia, Belarusian finance minister said after Moscow refused to refinance an existing loan.
“We do not consider the loan of the Government of the Russian Federation as a source of funding and [...] we have not provided any requests to the Russian side," Finance Minister Maksim Yermalovich is quoted by the Poland-based Belarusian news agency Belsat. "We do not expect to receive the Russian loan."
According to the agency, Minsk asked Russia for 600 million dollars earlier this year to refinance an existing loan. However, Moscow was reluctant to offer the funds and the Belarusian minister of finance said that Minsk had no need for “political loans”.
Yermalovich also said that Belarus would receive a 500-million-dollar loan from the China Development Bank by the end of the year, according to Belsat.
