Trud newspaper: Belarus took a $1 billion loan from Berdymukhamedov

• 10.06.2011, 13:32

The number of variants concerning where Lukashenka could take a mysterious $1 billion loan is increasing every minute.

There were versions that the loan could have been given by Russian tycoon Kerimov as payment for raw potash or the money could have been taken from Belarusian dictator’s personal assets, who is said to own not less than $9 billion.

Trud newspaper publishes a new version with a reference to Russian diplomats: the money was granted by Turkmenistan.

“It was one of the aims of Alyaksadnr Lukashenka’s visit to Ashgabat in early June,” a source told the paper.

The newspaper reminds that it’s not the first time when Minsk has found a strikingly quick way to settle its financial problems. Last June, Lukashenka made a surprising statement at a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that the country had found the necessary sum to pay the debt to Gazprom. “I borrowed this money from my friends. We will give it to you in the nearest time,” the Belarusian president said.

It happened at the time when the new Kyrgyz authorities accused ousted president Kurmanbek Bakiyev of stealing from the public treasure and taking abroad$200mn. In view of the fact that the debt to the Russian gas monopolist was $192mn, the sum would be enough for Minsk to pay it. At that time the disgraced politician arrived in Belarus, which refused to extradite him to the new Kyrgyz authorities.