ARMENIAN MINISTRY SAYS NO "NON-FINANCIAL" CONDITIONS IN RUSSIAN LOAN
Haykakan Zhamanak
Feb 10 2009
Armenia
"Finally"
Yesterday [9 February] the Armenian Ministry of Finance issued a
statement saying the Armenian and Russian governments have signed a
preliminary agreement to provide a 500m-dollar loan to Armenia.
It was impossible to clarify yesterday what specific conditions the
loan will have, as they are being kept secret. It is only said that
the loan will be provided for a period of 15 years, the first four at a
preferential rate. According to the Ministry of Finance’s assessments,
"the loan has been provided with mild conditions in comparison to the
current credit conditions in the international financial market". It
is not known what the preferential rate will be. It is noteworthy
that the Ministry of Finance emphasizes that the agreement does not
envisage implementation of some other non-financial conditions by
Armenia. One may remember that before this the Russian Federation
wrote in agreements regarding financial support that Armenia should
not, let’s say, draw very close to NATO.