MOSCOW, December 25. /TASS/. Russian lenders Gazprombank and VTB may receive aid from the National Wealth Fund until the end of 2014, Deputy Finance Minister Alexey Moiseyev told reporters on Thursday.

“Our goal is to make a transaction to finance projects through banks. I’ve said that we are working with two banks [Gazprombank and VTB]. They are proceeding at a slightly uneven pace because the projects are at different stages of readiness but we hope very much that we can complete one of the deals before the year end,” Moiseyev said.

Earlier on Thursday, the Federation Council, parliament’s upper house, passed a bill allowing the government to place up to 10% of the National Wealth Fund’s money on subordinate deposits and subordinate bonds of banks.

VTB earlier asked the government for 250 billion rubles ($4.8 billion) subordinated loans and Gazprombank for 100 billion rubles ($1.9 billion) financial aid.