U.S. Agency Suspends Russia From Food Export Program

WASHINGTON —  The Agriculture Department on Tuesday suspended Russia from the government’s main credit-guaranteed food export program for non-payment of its loans.

Russia made partial payments late Tuesday, but the suspension continued while banks waited for full payment. Spokesman Roger Runningen said he hopes Russia will make the payments by this morning to avoid further interruption in the credit program.

The Agriculture Department took the step after four banks reported that Russia had failed to pay $10.9 million due.

Russia has repaid nearly $900 million in credit guaranteed by the United States since the country began repaying the credits Jan. 1, Runningen said.

It was the first time Russia has been suspended from the program, which provides $5 billion in credit guarantees a year to buyers of U.S. agricultural exports. Under the program, the government guarantees lenders that they will get their money even if a borrower defaults.

In another possible source of U.S.-Russian friction, the United States voiced concern Tuesday about possible nuclear leaks from a Soviet submarine that sank in the Norwegian Sea in 1989.

Pentagon spokesman Pete Williams said the United States cannot verify an ABC-TV News report Monday, quoting Russian experts, that the sunken sub Komsomolets is leaking radioactive cesium. But Williams said that Russian scientists, in a meeting last January with U.S. counterparts, expressed concern about the potential for leakage. He said the U.S. side at the time asked for more information on the construction of the sub but has received no response.