MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Russia's Finance Ministry will pay out 800 billion rubles ($12.6 billion) in state loan guarantees to defense industry enterprises this year, Minister Anton Siluanov said Monday.
"About 800 billion rubles will be covered out of over 1 trillion rubles under the loan program," Siluanov said at the lower house of parliament's budget and tax committee.
He said the decision was made to expedite Russia's state armament and rearmament programs.
"We now see that there is a possibility of repaying the enterprises' loans in order to relieve them from their debt burden to once again buy on loan, including civilian goods," Siluanov stressed.
