Russia allocates more than $1 billion to Syria
Russia has allocated more than $1 billion for Syria to restore electricity grids, industrial infrastructure and other purposes, said the Head of the Russian National Defense Management Center Mikhail Mizintsev.
According to him, as part of interstate cooperation and humanitarian assistance to Syria, Russian ministries and agencies are "consistently promoting projects" in education and medicine, environmental management and housing construction, as well as trade, economic, scientific and technical cooperation. At the same time, Mizintsev did not specify when and for what period the funds were allocated.
He also recalled that Russia and the UN World Food Program signed a memorandum on aid and targeted voluntary contributions for food aid to Syria in the amount of $20 million in 2020 and in 2021.
"Education Center for Russian language is working in Damascus, where more than 100 Russian language teachers have already been trained. Today, 1,319 Syrian citizens study in Russian higher education organizations. More than 1.9 thousand young professionals have already completed their training," Mizintsev said.
The size of humanitarian aid to Syria far exceeds the annual budget of many Russian regions. As RBC news agency reported with reference to the Russian Ministry of Finance , every third region of Russia finished the year with budget deficit.
And during the year, the number of such subjects of the federation has more than doubled - from 15 to 35. The total deficit of these regions was estimated at 233 billion rubles ($3.01 billion USD).