Russia's $70 Billion ‘Secret’ Spending Lets Money Do the Talking
Automobiles queue on a highway beside the Kremlin complex in Moscow, Russia, on Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2016. Russia is realistic about limits on the prospects for an immediate improvement in relations with the U.S. after President-elect Donald Trump takes office, according to President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman.
Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/BloombergAs state secrets go, Russia’s program of export finance and loans to other nations might be one of the worst kept.
While discussions about aiding cash-strapped allies frequently spill into the open, the Finance Ministry’s debt chief Konstantin Vyshkovsky says information about individual loans isn’t public and a budget addendum on state financial and export credit is classified as “secret.” But, speaking in an interview at his office a short walk from the Kremlin, Vyshkovsky said Russia has committed about $70 billion in total to such loans, a figure that hasn’t been disclosed before.