Russia to give $21m credit to Bulgaria

In 2003, Russia will allocate a credit totaling over $21m to Bulgaria to restore the Kozloduy nuclear power station, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexey Kudrin declared at a Russian-Bulgarian forum which is being held as a part of the eighth session of the Russian-Bulgarian commission for trade, economic, scientific and technical collaboration in Saint Petersburg today. Kudrin stressed the importance of stepping up the development of trade and economic relations of the two countries, especially in the context of getting Russian companies involved in the privatization of Bulgarian gas companies and collaborating on joint projects of processing nuclear wastes. There are still barriers for Russian-Bulgarian collaboration in the trade and economic spheres, he added. In particular, a problem of transportation needs to be settled by the two countries shortl.