OREANDA-NEWS. Cyprus has completely paid off the loan debt to Russia, the press service of the Ministry of Finance said. "Cyprus has fully repaid its loan debt and is no longer a debtor to the Russian Federation", the Finance Ministry confirmed.

Earlier, on Monday, on Twitter, the Minister of Finance of the Republic of Cyprus Haris Georgiadis said that the Cypriot authorities repaid ahead of schedule a loan granted by Russia in 2011 with a balance of € 1.58 billion. Earlier, Bloomberg in its message called a smaller amount - € 1.56 billion. According to the agency, funds for early repayment were received due to the budget surplus and the placement of bonds in May. Cyprus took a loan from Russia in the hope of avoiding financial assistance from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.

As the Cyprus Mail newspaper explained, this loan was granted by Russia to the former administration of Cyprus, which was now headed by the late president Dimitris Christofias (1946-2019), in the amount of € 2.5 billion, when Cyprus was excluded from participation in operations in the financial markets. Before the final repayment, the balance of this loan was € 1.58 billion. The loan repayment period was extended until 2021, and the interest rate was reduced in 2013 from 4.5 to 2.5% when Cyprus requested emergency financial assistance to withdraw the country from crisis situation.

In April of this year, Cyprus placed two issues of Eurobonds totaling 1.25 billion euros. The Minister of Finance of the country Haris Georgiadis noted that the funds will go exclusively for the early repayment of the Russian loan.As Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak said in July, under the terms of the agreement, Russia is obliged to accept payment, despite the loss of interest from future periods. Nicosia repaid the loan in four tranches in 2018 and 2019.