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Government spent 4tn rubles on crisis support of Russia’s economy, first deputy PM says

Russia’s government took from banks in the form of loans, Andrei Belousov said

Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov Alexander Ryumin/TASS

Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov

© Alexander Ryumin/TASS

ST. PETERSBURG, June 5. /TASS/. Russia’s government has spent a total of four trillion rubles ($54.9 billion) to shore up the country’s economy during the pandemic, Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov said at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) on Saturday.

"That is about the question to metallurgists. I myself told [Vladimir] Lisin [the owner of the Novolipetsk (NLMK) steel company] at the closed-door meeting, ‘You made some yelling about a few tens of billions of rubles with several tens of billions of rubles in your revenues. We have burned four trillion rubles on this story [in support of the economy during the pandemic] without taking anything from you. We took from banks in the form of loans," Belousov said.

Belousov earlier said that the incomes of metallurgists in Russia have grown exponentially in 2020, they received 100 bln rubles in excess profits and must return this money to the budget.

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