The Russian Finance Ministry has proposed a meeting in Germany in late October with the Ukrainian side, mediated by Germany, to discuss an out-of-court settlement on the Ukrainian eurobond issue, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov has told journalists.
“We planned to meet with the Ukrainian finance minister at the G20 finance ministers’ meeting [in Washington] mediated by the German side. Since we are examining budget policy at a government meeting on October 6, and I would have had to fly to Washington on October 6… I made the decision not to go to Washington owing to the budget situation. We were in touch with our colleagues in Germany. They are our mediators and proposed a meeting in their territory at the end of October,” he said.
Initially the Russian government planned to examine the 2017-2019 draft budget and budget, tax and debt policy at a meeting on October 13. However, the decision was made to examine budget policy on October 6. Otherwise, October 13 “would be a very full government agenda, examining policy and the budget itself. This isn’t logical: first policy is examined and then, on that basis, the budget,” Siluanov said.
