Russia Pays Off USSR's Debt to Kuwait

Russia paid off debt of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) to Kuwait, including $1.1 billion of the debt itself and $620 million worth of interest on debt, the Russian Finance Ministry said Friday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The Soviet Union took out a loan from Kuwait in 1991, to be able to comply with financial obligations and to pay for the critically needed imports.

"Due to former USSR's inability to fulfil obligations on government external debt and Russia's need to make new agreements with foreign creditors of former USSR on restructuring of Soviet Unit's debts, Russia and Kuwait signed an agreement on settlement of the former USSR's debt on May 30, 2006," the ministry's statement reads.

According to the agreement, Russia paid off interest on the debt in the from of high-tech products' supplies.