OREANDA-NEWS. February 24, 2011. Belarus plans to take a USD 9 billion loan from Russia to build its nuclear power plant and infrastructure, First Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Semashko told in Minsk.

“We are negotiating a USD 9 billion loan, which should cover infrastructure,” Semashko said, adding that the loan agreement would be signed after two other deals have been inked – the intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in the construction of the nuclear plant and intergovernmental agreement on parallel operation of the power grids of Belarus and Russia.

Semashko emphasized that Belarus would take a state loan, although there were attempts to “push us into a commercial loan.”

Belarus plans to take out a loan for 25 years with a grace period to repay the principal debt until the nuclear plant starts generating power.

Previously, the head of the Russian state corporation Rosatom, Sergei Kiriyenko, said Russia and Belarus had agreed all technicalities of the intergovernmental deal on the construction of a nuclear power plant in Belarus and parallel operation of the power grids. The two agreements will be signed in a single package during the first quarter of 2011, Kiriyenko said.