WASHINGTON (September 24 - RIA Novosti) - Russia will join the G-8's debt cancellation initiative for the least developed countries (LDC), Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said.
Russia as a G-8 member signed a letter to the World Bank whereby the G-8 undertakes to cover 70.19 % of this debt.
Kudrin said this is well within Russia's scope, while the main brunt will be born by the United States, France, and Germany.
The initiative involves cancellation of $40 million in LDC debt over a 40-year period.
Russia is a major LDC creditor. According to various estimates, third countries owe it a total of $100 billion to $130 billion.
In the past five years, Moscow has cancelled about $30 billion in LDC debt, including more than $10 billion for Syria.