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Moscow's position on Ukraine's debt does not change — Kremlin

Russia's finance minister said Moscow will vote against granting Ukraine a tranche of the IMF

MOSCOW, September 13. /TASS/. Russia is against changes in the rules of allocating new tranches of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) based on momentary developments, Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.

"As for the new IMF tranche to Ukraine, the situation is clear. Moscow has consistently opposed and continues to oppose changing the rules for allocating tranches for a specific situation, momentary political situation, which is what is happening in the case of Ukraine," the Kremlin official said.

Moscow's position on Ukraine's debt

According to Peskov, the Kremlin proceeds from the fact that Ukraine’s debt to Russia must be paid.

"The Kremlin's position has not changed. This is confirmed sovereign debt of Ukraine that must be returned," he said.

Peskov also said that Russia is against changes in the rules of allocating new tranches of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) based on momentary developments. "As for the new IMF tranche to Ukraine, the situation is clear. Moscow has consistently opposed and continues to oppose changing the rules for allocating tranches for a specific situation, momentary political situation, which is what is happening in the case of Ukraine," the Kremlin official said.

Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said on Monday that Russia will vote against granting Ukraine a tranche of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). At the same time, Russia hopes for a fair decision of the IMF on the issue.

Siluanov said that Ukraine does not try to establish cooperation with the Russian side on the debt restructuring.

The minister also noted that in planning its actions the IMF does not pay attention to Ukraine’s overdue debt.

Siluanov said that Ukraine’s proposal implied that Russia was to write off 36% of its debt. "We did not tale such proposals seriously because they could also propose writing off their whole debt to Russia and it could also be considered as a proposal. I remind you that as a result of agreement with Ukraine commercial lenders wrote off about 18-20% of the debt by using the term of discounted value," the minister said.

Russia is a shareholder in the IMF capital, the Russian national quota in the Fund's capital is 2.7%.