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Talks on Russian loan may be completed within month

Minsk and Moscow may complete talks on a $1-billion Russian loan for Belarus within a month, Russian Finance Minister Aleksei Kudrin said in Washington on April 17, BelaPAN said.

"I would like the talks to be finished within a month, but it depends on the nature [of the talks], there may be difficulties concerning the issues that we are dealing with," RIA Novosti quoted him as saying.

Mr. Kudrin said that he had discussed the matter with his Belarusian counterpart Andrey Kharkavets on April 11. "We exchanged information, answered each other's questions, I have an idea of what is ready at present and how the Belarusian side sees it," he said.

According to the Russian minister, the two governments have outlined a list of issues "on which additional work must be done." "Such work has already been done every day," he said.

Mr. Kudrin noted that a working group of the Eurasian Economic Community would start considering Belarus' request for a loan of up to $2 billion out of its anti-crisis fund after the completion of the talks between Minsk and Moscow.

Speaking to reporters on April 15, Mr. Kudrin noted that Russia was ready to provide financial assistance to Belarus but only on condition that Minsk continued economic reforms.