MOSCOW, December 21. /TASS/. The international debt of Russia has contracted by about a third, President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting of the Council for Strategic Development and National Projects.

"The foreign debt of Russia, which is very important, decreased by approximately a third," the head of state said. "The state is reducing [it] and our leading companies are reducing, repaying loans in time and performing other actions making their finance more balanced and healthy," Putin noted.

The process of substitution of external borrowing sources of Russian companies by internal ones is underway, the head of state said. "While the amount of corporate ruble loans increased by 9.5 trillion rubles ($103.6 bln) over the last year, it added 13.5 trillion rubles ($147.2 bln) more since the start of this year," he added.