Czech Republic Will Write Off 46% Of Russian Debt

Russia and the Czech Republic have negotiated that 46% of the Russian $3.6 billion debt will be written off. Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov said this after negotiations with his Czech counterpart Milos Zeman and added that the remainder of the Russian overdue debt, and overdue interest payments would be restructured for a long term -until 2020. Kasyanov said that the remaining debt would also be used to guarantee supplies of Czech goods to Russia. According to him, the Czech Republic is interested in increasing its supplies to this country owing to the current credit balance in trade with Russia. Kasyanov said that the whole "financial issues bloc" would be settled during the Tuesday and Wednesday talks. It is planned, in particular, to sign Wednesday a supplement to the USSR-Czechoslovakia agreement on cooperation in development of the Yamburg gas deposit. So far, Russia has a debt related to this agreement.