IMF granted Belarusian dictatorship $450mln for military exercises

The money is granted outside the stand by arrangement with the Belarusian authorities.

The International Monetary Fund gave Belarus $448.7mln in Special Drawing Rights (SDR), Natalia Kalyadzina, the permanent representative of the IMF in Belarus, said.

Special Drawing Rights (SDR) is a unit of account by the IMF member-states.

“The IMF allocated SDR $250bln and distributed it among all members of the Fund in proportion to their existing quotas. The Belarus’s quota is $448.7mln,” Kalyadzina said.

According to her, the allocation is granted outside the stand by arrangement with Belarus. “The Fund can allocate special drawing rights that can be placed to a member state’s account. This increases gross and naked reserves and give an opportunity to buy currency the country needs,” Kalyadzina explained. She noted these allocations wouldn’t be paid.

We remind that Zapad-2009 strategic military exercises started in Belarus in September. First echelons of Russian soldiers have already arrived in Belarus.

One of the aims of the exercises is liquidation of military conflicts, but Belarusian democrats believe the forthcoming exercises threaten independence of Belarus. The Belarusian land has never met such amount of Russian soldiers before – 6000 out of 12500 soldiers, involved in the training, are Russians.

A rally “No to Russian Occupation!” against bringing Russian troops in the country was held in Minsk on September 9. Dozens of protestors were arrested and beaten up by riot militia.