MOSCOW, December 22 (RIA Novosti) - Belarus has turned to Russia for a 100 billion-ruble ($3.5 billion) loan in exchange for payment in rubles in bilateral trade, a Russian deputy finance minister said on Monday.
"There is a letter saying that they want to obtain a loan of 100 billion rubles in exchange for transition to ruble payments for trade," Dmitry Pankin said.
Pankin failed to specify the rate, at which Belarus wanted to obtain the loan, or whether the loan issue would be discussed at today's meeting between Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko in Moscow.
The Russian government earlier agreed to grant Belarus a $2 billion stabilization loan. Belarus received half of this sum back in November.
Mutual trade between Russia and Belarus increased more than 40%, year-on-year, in 2008 and is expected to hit a record $33 billion by the end of the year.
