OREANDA-NEWS. President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko is going to come to talks with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. It is planned to discuss the issue of granting a loan to Minsk for $ 3 billion. This is reported by "Kommersant" with reference to its sources.

Negotiations between the Russian and Belarusian presidents may take place on February 22 or 25 in Sochi. The last time Putin and Lukashenko met there was on September 14, when an agreement was reached on a $ 1.5 billion loan to Belarus.

The fact that a meeting between Putin and Lukashenko is planned was previously confirmed by the official representative of the Kremlin Dmitry Peskov.

Interlocutors of the publication in the Russian government claim that now Minsk wants to get access to the rest of the funds allocated by Russia for the construction of the Belarusian nuclear power plant. This loan is worth over $ 3 billion.

In 2011, an agreement was reached on the issuance by Russia of a state loan of $ 10 billion for the construction of a nuclear power plant. As of September 2020, Belarus used 4.5 billion of them.

One of the sources also noted that the Russian and Belarusian sides "are close to reaching an agreement on the allocation of funds."