Lukashenko goes to Putin for billions
President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko plans to visit Russia by the end of February and will meet in Sochi with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Kommersant writes about this, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent, citing high-ranking sources in Moscow.
Vladimir Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov also announced preparations for the first meeting of the presidents of Russia and Belarus this year, although he did not name specific dates.
At the same time, the publication’s sources in the Kremlin say that the discussed dates for the negotiations are February 22 and 25, and Sochi has been chosen as the venue.
According to the newspaper, it is planned to discuss the financial issue - thus, the Belarusian side, interlocutors in the Russian government say, would like to gain access to the balance of funds allocated by Moscow for the construction of the Belarusian nuclear power plant. It is clarified that we are talking about an amount exceeding $3 billion.
One of the interlocutors noted that the parties are “close to reaching an agreement on the allocation of funds,” adding that interest, terms and amount are being discussed. However, he noted that the loan size is “more than $3 billion.” According to another informed source, the issue of the loan has already been fundamentally resolved.
In 2011, an agreement was reached on Russia’s allocation of a state loan to Belarus in the amount of $10 billion for the construction of a nuclear power plant. At the end of September 2020, Minsk used only 4,5 billion of them.
Lukashenko goes to Putin for billions