ISTANBUL: 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.
"For that to be a done deal, we need to have it on paper."
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.
Russia lent Cyprus 2.5 billion euros in 2011 for five years, with an annual interest rate of 4.5 percent. Extending the loan and reducing the interest would ease debt servicing costs for Nicosia and help it regain financial stability.
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