Kremlin says VTB financing Rosneft deal not on its agenda

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian state bank VTB financing the privatization of Rosneft last year is a commercial issue which is not on the Kremlin's agenda, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday.

Peskov added that VTB financing the deal should not be viewed as participation in the Rosneft privatization.

Russian President Vladimir Putin last year publicly said that state banks should not help finance privatization deals.

Vedomosti newspaper reported late on Monday that VTB had helped launch the privatization of Rosneft by lending 692 billion roubles ($11.6 billion) on Dec. 15 to the joint venture between Glencore and Qatar that bought a 19.5 percent stake in Rosneft.

(Reporting by Polina Devitt; Writing by Katya Golubkova and Alexander Winning)

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