OREANDA-NEWS. On 08 June 2009 was announced, that Russian Agriculture Minister Yelena Skrynnik sees no reason why Belarusian traders claim they have a limited access to the Russian market. She was speaking at a session of the Russian government.

She said there was no reason why Russian banks should extend loans to support purchases of Belarusian machines.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin had asked Skrynnik to comment on the problems that Belarusian producers of farm machines claim they have when trying to supply their products to Russia.

Skrynnik said Russian companies assembled 11,000 tractors from Belarusian kits annually. “The claims of the Belarusian side are therefore ungrounded,” she said.

Putin asked whether loans should be provided to buy Belarusian machinery, and Skrynnik said the situation with loans was rather difficult, and the Agriculture Ministry believed there were enough Belarusian tractors for assembly in Russia. “I believe it is advisable to use loan to purchase domestic machines,” she said, referring to large stock of unsold Russian farm machines.