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  • Feb 4th, 2005
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Russia is negotiating early repayment of its debt to Paris Club state creditors, President Vladimir Putin said Thursday, stressing that his oil-rich country no longer needed foreign loans. "The World Bank has made a significant contribution to the development of market relations in Russia," Putin said during a meeting with the World Bank president James Wolfensohn, who was on a visit to Moscow.

"Now we longer need such massive external financial support as before. Moreover, as you know, we have paid our 3.3 billion dollar debt to the IMF," he added.

"Now we are conducting negotiations on the possibility of making a similar agreement with the Paris Club. Of course, such a decision will only be made if it is economically feasible for us," Putin said.

Russia's finances are benefiting from windfall inflows of foreign currency as a result of high oil prices and this week it made its last payment to the International Monetary Fund three years ahead of schedule.

Russia, whose economy survived with assistance from the IMF throughout the 1990s, borrowing 22 billion dollars, made a final IMF debt payment of 3.33 billion dollars.

Russia's Soviet-era debt to the 19 members of the Paris Club stood on October 1, 2004 at 44.4 billion dollars (34.2 billion euros), including 20 billion dollars to its biggest lender Germany.

A German press report in December said that Russia wanted to repay up to 30 billion euros (39 billion dollars) of its Paris Club debt over the next three years.

The German business newspaper Handelsblatt, citing German government sources, said that an agreement on the repayment would be reached soon.

The German government sources said Russia wanted to repay 10 billion euros per year from 2005-2007.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2005


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