Russia's top three debtors are Belarus, Ukraine, and Venezuela

Of all the world’s countries, Belarus is the most heavily indebted to Russia. That’s not a philosophical statement — a new report by the website RBC states that Belarus owed almost $7.6 billion to Russia as of June 1, 2019. Second place goes to Ukraine ($3.7 billion), followed by Venezuela ($3.5 billion). RBC also found another 17 countries that owe Russia a combined $27 billion. The list includes Armenia, Georgia, Moldova, Cuba, Bangladesh, Cyprus, India, Yemen, Iraq, Serbia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Hungary.

RBC used open-source data to carry out this study. The Russian government typically doesn’t release information about its loans to other states because they are often made for political reasons or offered as part of military and technical cooperations.