David Kramer: Putin does not let Russia have its fair share for Lukashenka’s sake

The Russian leader continues to demonstrate generosity towards the neighbors, while his country’s economic indicators are not impressive.

International experts believe that the loan, provided to Belarus, will not save our country’s economy, The Voice of America reports.

The senior researcher of the Peterson Institute for International Economics Anders Aslund calls the loan a drop in the sea, noting that this kind of loans have become the main format of the relations of Moscow and Minsk: “Annually Belarus receives about 10 billion dollars from Russia in the form of subsidies, grants and loans. The Belarusian economy is not in the best condition now; Lukashenka has run out of money and he again went to Putin for it”.

Lukashenka, in the economist’s opinion, make the same mistake again: in the times of a crisis he raises the salaries of high-ranked officials. “The Belarusian economy cannot afford that today. As a result the negative balance only increases and it should be urgently addressed”, - Aslund said.

The head of an influential human rights organization Freedom House David Kramer believes that having provided a loan for Lukashenka, Putin deprives Russia or its fair share, while the country’s economy is stagnating.

“Something similar already took place, for example, in November 2011, when Putin helped Lukashenka. However, the Russian leader continues showing generosity towards neighbors, while his country’s economic indicators do not look impressive. Despite Russia’s being third in the world in terms of currency reserves, its GDP in the current year is lower than expected, and the predictions for the coming years were lowered by the experts of the World Bank and Russian economists”, - Kramer noted.

We would remind that as a result of the meetings in Moscow on 24 and 25 December Minsk will be provided with a loan of $2 billion for 10 years.