Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin had a videoconference with cabinet members to discuss “Direct and gratuitous aid to small and medium-sized companies in hard-hit industries based on minimum wage per worker. The companies will be able to spend these grants to maintain salaries and for resolving other urgent tasks,” website of the government reports.
“Over the course of two months about one million organizations and individual entrepreneurs will be able to use this subsidy and the total costs will exceed RUR 80 bln ($1.1 bln). This support will be available to those that maintain no less than 90% of their staff as compared with March 2020,” he said. “We will also expand the program of interest-free credit to businesses in hard-hit industries. It was supposed to cover just small and micro businesses but now these loans can be granted to bigger companies in the same economic sectors.”
In addition, he noted “supporting backbone companies by providing low-interest loans for working capital. Today’s key objective is to maintain the stable operation of major enterprises that employ millions of people.”
Mishustin also spoke of soft mortgage loans to give people “an opportunity to take out a mortgage for the purchase of new housing at a rate not exceeding 6.5%. This program will apply to mortgage loans of up to RUR 8 mio ($100K) in Moscow and St Petersburg, where the housing is more expensive, and up to RUR 3 mio in the other regions.”