MOSCOW, November 12. /TASS/. Russia’s granting of $5 bln credit to Iran will depend on readiness of contracts to be financed, Energy Minister Alexander Novak said in an interview aired by the Rossiya-24 TV news channel on Thursday.

"I think this instrument (crediting) will be in demand and mainly will depend on readiness of contracts," he said.

Novak also expressed hope that Russia’s VEB development bank will sign an agreement with Iran’s Central Bank "on providing resources for export crediting of Russian goods to be supplies to the Islamic Republic of Iran."

The Minister said that projects "may be financed from various sources — both using companies’ own funds and raised commercial loans."

Earlier on Thursday Novak, who also co-chairs Russian-Iranian intergovernmental commission, said that Iran’s Finance Ministry had applied to Russia’s Finance Ministry for export credit loan worth $5 bln. According to Novak, Iran's Minister of Communications and Information Technology and co-chairman of Russia-Iran intergovernmental committee Mahmoud Vaezi had met with Russia’s Finance Minister Siluanov and management of the Central Bank in order to discuss various tools to finance different projects, including intergovernmental lending. Novak added that the decision may be made after its approval by core departments.

Meanwhile, Svetlana Nikitina, an aide to Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, told TASS that the decision to extend credit to Iran has not yet been taken. She added that the Russian budget does not have resources to do so. "No such decisions were made… The budget does not provide for that," Nikitina said.