The Russian government’s finance ministry signaled on Friday that it was planning to continue financially supporting the Moscow region.

A statement from the ministry to journalists today suggested that more financial bailouts were on the cards for the indebted region, which was the greatest beneficiary of state financial aid in 2009.

The government has already spent 10 billion roubles on helping the Moscow region and it looks like more is to come. The statement from deputy finance minister Anton Siluanoy read: “I do not rule out that we will offer more help in 2010, but it will come in much lower amounts than last year.”

For its 2010 budget, 140 billion roubles has been set aside for state aid packages, however, some 50 billion is intended to pay for improvements to the country’s infrastructure.

Last year, the government pledged to honour the Moscow region’s debt, which resulted in it lending a total of 44 billion by the end of the year. Some 30 billion of this was made up of the three-year loans, the rest was a subsidy.