Finance Ministry asks EU bank to increase investments in Russia

Russia has applied to the European Investment Bank with a request to expand financing of projects in Russia to $1bn, Finance Minister Alexey Kudrin told journalists today. He noted this issue had been in focus at his meeting with Finnish Finance Minister Antti Kalliomaki who supported the request. Earlier, Russia's proposal was supported by Germany and France. The European Investment Bank has allocated $100m for environmental projects in Russia and its investments were expected to be increased to $300m. The Russian Finance Minister reported that investments would be used for projects throughout the CIS in the event the amount of financing was increased to $1bn. However, he did not specify these projects.