Russia gives Kyrgyzstan $30 million and promises further $1.6 billion
Russia is continuing the Soviet practice of making multi-billion dollar investments into regimes near and far that are loyal to the Kremlin.
The Russian government has agreed to grant free financial assistance to Kyrgyzstan, announced Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov on Wednesday.
Kyrgyzstan itself sent the request for financial assistance. Russia agreed to allocate $30 million to support the republic’s federal budget. The decision was made earlier in March, but was not reported on, Ushakov explained.
The Kyrgyz Republic could receive another $1.6 billion as investments from Russia. According to the Russian news agency Interfax, Russian and Kyrgyz companies signed an agreement and memorandum of cooperation on Wednesday as part of the eighth bilateral interregional conference in Bishkek.
Most of the funds will be used to develop natural resource mining projects in Kyrgyzstan. The Russian company Rosgeologiya has signed a $1.2 billion contract with the Kyrgyz state committee on industry, energy and subsurface resource management.
In addition to developing the mineral and resource base, some of the money will be used to solve water supply problems in the south of the republic.
In June 2017, Russian President Vladimir Putin wrote off $240 million of Kyrgyz debt – the balance of what the republic had borrowed from Moscow 12 years ago, a loan which had been gradually “forgiven” by the Kremlin in more recent years. For example, Russia wrote off $188.9 million in 2013 and $30 million in 2016. Over the last 12 years, it has written off a total of $703.2 million of Kyrgyz debt.
On Thursday 28 March, Putin will travel to Bishkek for the re-signing of an agreement authorizing Russia to have a military base in Kyrgyzstan, Ushakov noted.
The agreement will be amended in several ways, which Moscow hopes will “benefit the real functioning of this base in future,” the Russian diplomat explained.
In particular, the price for stationing the Russian military base in the country will be raised to $4.79 billion per year.