World Banks halts all programmes in Russia, Belarus

The World Bank on Wednesday said it had stopped all programmes in Russia and Belarus with immediate effect.

Its reasons were the Russian invasion of Ukraine and “hostilities against the people of Ukraine.”

In a statement, the multilateral development bank said it had not approved any new loans to or investments in Russia since 2014, the year Russia annexed the Crimea region of Ukraine.

The bank said it had not approved any new lending to Belarus since mid-2020, when the United States imposed sanctions on the country over a disputed presidential election.