Leaders among borrowers
In 2021, Russia made loans to Iran for the first time since the early 1990s, but at the end of last year the largest borrowers of the Russian Federation were Belarus, Bangladesh and India. World Bank.
In 2021, Belarus’ debt to Russia increased by 1.9% to $8.5 billion, according to the agency’s data. Bangladesh took second place, increasing its debt by almost a third in a year, from $3.3 billion to $4.4 billion.
Vietnam, which increased its debt by 0.9% to $1.5 billion in 2021, ranks fourth, and Yemen, which ranks fifth with a debt of $1.17 billion), ranks sixth.
The countries with the highest increase in debt to Russia in 2021 are Uzbekistan (up 77% to $254.7 million), Egypt (up 63.7% to $867.2 million) and Pakistan (up 20.8% to $86.7 million) it happened.
According to the World Bank, Iran owed Russia $251,000 in 1992. But at the end of 2021, he owed Russia $6 million.
In total, as of the end of last year, 38 countries of the world owed 26.54 billion dollars to Russia. It is recorded that this amount increased by 7.4% in 2021. Asia accounted for $12.06 billion, Europe $10 billion, the Middle East $3.05 billion, Africa $1.35 billion and Latin America $86.1 million.
New loan to Belarus
In 2022, Belarus increased its obligations to Moscow by more than $ 1.5 billion.
On April 22, Belarusian Finance Minister Yury Seliverstov said on Belarus 1 TV channel that Russia has given Minsk a delay of about a year to pay more than $1 billion as part of its loan obligations.
“As for the Russian Federation, actually, we were given the right to defer an annual payment … not even for a calendar year, but more … And now we pay no more than a billion dollars. we had to. “This is a friendly act on behalf of our partners,” he said.
On September 1, at an open history lecture held in all schools and universities of the country, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko announced that Russia will allocate approximately two billion dollars to the country for joint projects in the field of import substitution.
“We will have many projects with the Russian Federation. Starting with the military-strategic and ending with the world. Joint import substitution projects are huge, now Russia allocates $2 billion for these joint projects.”
He noted that projects that begin with the “Memory Train” (a patriotic project) and end with “military-strategic projects” will be “dark and dark”.
We will strengthen our relations with our main strategic partner, brotherly Russia,” he said.
The Ministry of Industry of Belarus said that the Russian Federation will allocate these resources for the implementation of import substitution projects in the republic, especially in the field of engineering.
On November 16, a message appeared on the Telegram channel of the Belarusian government that an agreement was signed that Russia will provide the country with a loan of 105 billion Russian rubles – about $ 1.6 billion – for import substitution. projects.”
“The relevant document was signed today by the heads of the Belarusian and Russian finance ministries. According to the agreement, import substitution cooperation projects will be implemented in the territory of the Republic of Belarus. At present, both sides have confirmed their readiness to finance 12 projects.
In addition, on April 2, Belarusian Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko announced that Belarus plans to sign an agreement with the Russian Federation on preferential tariffs for the transfer of Belarusian cargoes to Russian ports, similar to “made for oil products”. He recalled that an agreement was signed with Russia in the field of transportation of Belarusian oil products, according to which “Russian Railways provides a 50% discount for the transportation of these goods to Russian ports.”
Belarusian import substitution at the expense of the Russian Federation
On November 21, Lukashenka said in a meeting with the head of Udmurtia, Alexander Brechalov, that Minsk and Moscow were able to cope with the solution of problems in the field of import substitution after the introduction of Western sanctions and the withdrawal of a number of companies. The market of the State of the Union.
“This year has shown that we are quite capable of solving problems that we urgently need to solve,” said the Belarusian president.
According to him, Russia and Belarus “understood which direction to move.”
“In principle, we can do a lot. Maybe not so fast, but time requires us to increase our speed. I will touch on the negotiations with the President of Russia. The main thing we are talking about is that we can do everything, but we need some time. Even today money is not the main thing. Today, Russia’s there is currency – nowhere to put it: imports are down. But we definitely have very little time,” said Lukashenka.
He also confirmed that Minsk and Moscow have identified more than a dozen joint projects in the field of import substitution, to which Russia will provide loans.
On December 4, Finance Minister Yury Seliverstov announced that Belarus plans to start financing import substitution projects with Russian loans by the end of 2022.
“Currently, about 15 projects are planned, now their special development is underway to apply to the bank for financing. “Hopefully we can start funding something by the end of this year.”
He noted that “considering that these will be borrowed resources,” Belarus will have to “earn this money, return it and derive its profitability from it.”
“Again, this is both job creation and added value,” Seliverstov concluded.