Sunday, May 30, 2021

Russia confirms $500m loan for Belarus as West toughens sanctions | Al Jazeera

Russia has agreed to release a second $500m loan to Belarus as Moscow stepped up its support for Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko amid outrage in the West about the grounding of a European passenger plane and the arrest of a dissident journalist.

The financial support was announced after Russian President Vladimir Putin held a second day of talks with Lukashenko, and treated his guest to a yacht tour in the Black Sea resort of Sochi on Saturday.

The money is part of a $1.5bn loan that Russia promised Belarus as part of Moscow’s efforts to stabilise its neighbour after mass protests broke out against Lukashenko’s nearly three-decade rule last year.

Minsk received a first instalment of $500m in October and will receive the second tranche before the end of June, the RIA news agency reported.

Putin and Lukashenko’s two-day summit came as the European Union and the United States denounced Belarus for using a hoax bomb threat to force a Ryanair jet to land in Minsk. Belarusian authorities sent a fighter jet to escort the plane down, before arresting journalist Roman Protasevich and his partner Sofia Sapega, a Russian citizen.

Both are in jail accused of orchestrating mass riots. Protasevich could be jailed for up to 15 years.

1 comment :

  1. The second $500-million tranche of Russia’s state loan to Belarus has been approved, the money will be transferred in the immediate future, but the issues of additional aid to Minsk by Moscow was not raised, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Saturday after the talks held by Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko in Sochi.

    According to Peskov, the money will go to Minsk "in the immediate future." "At least, there are no obstacles left, everything is agreed," the Russian presidential spokesman said.

    The Kremlin spokesman pointed out that it had been announced "well before all those stories with the plane" and confirmed the deadline of late June, which had been reported earlier. Nevertheless, Peskov could not give an exact date, as that is a matter of financial authorities."President Lukashenko did not come up with any requests for additional economic aid. The issue was not raised in this way," the Kremlin spokesman said.

    "There were mainly two major topics, namely the further development of trade and economic cooperation between Russia and Belarus as well as the fight against the pandemic," Peskov said.
    TASS

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