The debt of foreign countries to Russia set a record since 1999 — $30.1 billion, reported the agency RIA 'Novosti' citing World Bank statistics. Despite a budget deficit of 3.2 trillion rubles, last year Russia issued loans and credits of more than $2.5 billion, and also forgave and wrote off obligations to several countries. Egypt, Bangladesh, and India received the most new loans, while the largest debtor remains Belarus — its debt amounts to $7.75 billion, which is a quarter of all loans issued by Russia. Bangladesh is in second place with $6.6 billion (22%), and India is third with $4.1 billion (14%). The top 5 also includes Egypt with $3.3 billion (11%) and Vietnam with $1.4 billion (5%).
Egypt increased its 'credit line' by $1.45 billion. $745 million went to Bangladesh, $363 million to India. Uzbekistan's debt increased by $41.3 million, Afghanistan's by $19.9 million. Obligations also increased for Zambia, Yemen, Sri Lanka, Ecuador, Sudan, and Moldova — collectively by $26.5 million.
A new 'debtor' also appeared last year — Nicaragua, for the first time since 2003, took a loan from Russia in the amount of $16.9 million.
Russia forgave about $700 million of debt to Somalia, including obligations that remained since the USSR, Belarus's debt was reduced by $487 million, which Russian President Vladimir Putin allowed to defer payments on loans from 2023 to 2029–34. Additionally, Serbia's debt decreased by $117 million, Armenia's by $40 million, and obligations to Russia were 'forgiven' for another 10 countries for a total of $82 million.
As noted by the publication The Moscow Times*, the total volume of new loans converted to rubles at the current rate amounted to 257 billion rubles. This is comparable to the budget of a large Russian region, such as the Irkutsk region — 270 billion rubles, and the annual budget of the entire national project 'Healthcare' — 290 billion rubles.
* Recognized in Russia as a 'foreign agent' and 'undesirable' organization.