Russia has not yet agreed to extend the terms of its 2.5 billion euro ($3.2 billion) loan to Cyprus, Russia's deputy finance minister said on Saturday. "There was a request ... to change the duration of the loan, we promised to think about it," Sergei Storchak told reporters, on the sidelines of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development annual meeting, speaking through an interpreter.
"This was a kind of promise - if somebody wants to see it as a done deal, there is nothing I can do about it." He added that any changes to the terms of the loan would need parliamentary ratification. Cyprus' foreign minister said this week that Russia had agreed to extend the terms of the loan as part of its participation in the bailout of the indebted Mediterranean country. A document prepared by international lenders also reported that Russia agreed to extend the maturity of the loan to Cyprus by two years and cut the interest rate.