Putin: Ukraine will have to return $3 billion in December

Moscow - Kiev, February 4 (PolitNavigator, Mikhail Stamm) - Russian President Vladimir Putin made it clear that Moscow in December will demand from Ukraine the return of $3 billion loaned to the Yanukovych government at the end of 2013 as a reward for delaying the signing of an association with the EU. In all likelihood, this will provoke a default in Ukraine - unless, of course, it happens earlier

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Last night, speaking at an anti-crisis meeting with government and Central Bank officials, Putin noted that additional resources would be needed to implement the anti-crisis plan. "As in previous years, when we faced challenges from the external environment, we used our reserve funds, including the National Welfare Fund," Komsomolskaya Pravda quotes the president as saying . "Let me remind you that as of January 1, 2015, the NWF's assets amounted to 4 trillion 388 billion rubles."

At the same time, Putin noted, a significant part of these resources is placed in various financial instruments, including debt obligations of Ukraine - 169 billion rubles, the same $3 billion issued as a loan to Yanukovych.

“The repayment period begins in December of this year,” the Russian President recalled. “We, of course, must, first of all, use these funds for our needs.”