The funds will cover payments for Russian equipment and services under the project, as well as part of the costs in Uzbekistan.

Gas prices in Europe rose sharply after Germany’s energy regulator suspended the certification process for the Nord Stream 2 underwater pipeline taking Russian gas to Germany.

Dmitry Sergeev is a successful serial entrepreneur of Russian origin, who built his most prominent venture, Depositphotos, in Ukraine.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, accused by Western countries of masterminding a humanitarian calamity on his country’s border with Poland, proposed sending to Germany some of the thousands of migrants stranded there, but Germany and the European Union immediately rejected the proposed scheme.

The complex will have a production capacity of 720,000 tonnes of finished polymer products –- enough to satisfy all domestic demand.