Russia struck a landmark deal on Friday to repay up to $15 billion it owes to the West, sealing its rapid transformation from economic basket case to emerging markets powerhouse. The Paris Club of sovereign lenders said nearly all of its members would take up Russia's offer to prepay the loans, assumed by Moscow after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, at face value. The deal -- the largest ever Paris Club debt redemption -- crowns Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin's drive to use Russia's growing oil wealth to reduce the $43 billion it owes to the Club's other 18 members, comprising the world's leading industrialised nations. "We are moving ever further away from default and devaluation," a delighted Kudrin told a news briefing in Moscow carried by Reuters. In practice, Russia will transfer $13 billion in June to the creditors who took up the offer, saving $2.25 billion in charges from 2006-08 and a total of $6 billion through to 2020, he said. Germany, Russia's largest creditor which badly needs a cash injection to help fund its budget deficit, expects to reap 5 billion euros ($6.4 billion) in the deal. Italy, the second biggest creditor, can expect 1.5 billion euros ($1.93 billion). --More 2128 Local Time 1828 GMT
