Russia is among the leaders on the amount of external debts written off. Taking into account large loans only, the Russian Federation wrote off almost USD140 billion for its debtors over the past 20 years.

The overwhelming majority of debts to Russia are the unpaid loans that extended the Soviet Union used to grant to developing countries. Such loans were mainly issued on political grounds, and the Soviet leadership did not expect their repayment in full.

On June 1999, in the framework of the Paris Club, Russia signed the Cologne Agreement which pardoned 60% to 90% to a number of countries, mostly African states such as Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique, Tanzania, Benin, Sierra Leone, Mali, Guinea-Bissau, Chad, Burkina Faso and others.

More precisely, Ethiopia had almost USD 6bn written off: USD 4.8bn in 2001 and USD 1.1bn in 2005. Algeria's relief amounted to USD 4.7bn, in return for the country's pledge to purchase a large amount of industrial goods from Russia.

Back in 1996, Russia wrote off USD 3.5bn (out of USD 9bn) to Angola. According to the terms of the agreement signed with Angola, the balance of the debt must be returned to Russia before 2016 in the form of promissory notes.

In 2008, Russia wrote off:

USD 4.6bn to Libya		USD 11 bn to Afghanistan
USD 31.7bn to Cuba		USD 10 bn to North Korea
USD 21.5 bn to Iraq		USD 9.8 bn to Syria
USD 20 bn to African countries		USD 9.53 bn to Vietnam
USD 11.1 bn to Mongolia		USD 5.95 bn to Nicaragua

Based on the data of the Paris Club of Creditors, there are still some countries due to settle to Russia up to 50 loans. Among the debtors are Guinea, Burundi, DR Congo, Central African Republic, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova. The experts are confident, however, that the debt relief to these countries is only a matter of time.