BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

25/04/2009

Critical Belarus President refrains from asking Russia for new loans

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has criticized Moscow for its economic policy toward Minsk.

"Russia has pumped $10 billion out of Belarus by increasing the price for gas and imposing duties on oil in the past year and a half, and they have extended as much as $2 billion to us under quite a high interest rate, which is not applied anywhere else in the world," Lukashenko said on Saturday, Interfax news agency reports.

The economic situation in Belarus has stabilized now, Lukashenko said.

"We have clung to the brink of this crisis and are balancing there now. Our senior officials are telling me that some changes have taken shape, and if this trend remains in place until the end of the year, everything is going to be all right," Lukashenko said.

If Belarus needs more loans, "we will probably ask other people for loans," he said.

"That somebody in Russia or another country is alleging that we have gone beyond the safe threshold means only that they are afraid that we might ask for loans and are saying beforehand that they would think twice before providing us loans," he said in an interview with Interfax-Zapad Belarus news agency .

"We are not asking for loans at the moment," he said.

Source:

http://www.mosnews.com/politics/2009/04/26/lukashencritical/

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