Russia pays over USD 53 mln as contribution to UN budget

UNITED NATIONS. February 26. KAZINFORM Russia has paid in full a more than USD 53 million contribution to various structures of the United Nations, Russia's permanent UN mission said.

In a statement released on Wednesday, the mission said that Russia had paid its contribution to the UN regular budget and the budgets of the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda international tribunals. The money will also be put toward a project to carry out a major overhaul of the UN headquarters in New York. Funds also went to finance the budgets of five peacekeeping operations - the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force on the Golan Heights in the Israel-Syria sector, the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP), the United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC), the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) and the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), the statement said. Russia accounts for 1.2% of the UN regular budget (14th place). The largest UN donor is the United States (22% of the budget) followed by Japan (16.6%) and Germany (8.57%); Kazinform has learnt from RIA-Novosti.