Metals magnate Oleg Deripaska to pay off a loan to a group of Western banks

National development bank VEB announced Wednesday that it had approved nearly $10 billion in government bailout credits to Russian companies that have foreign loans coming due, without naming the companies.Russian government has agreed to loan $4.5 billion to metals magnate Oleg Deripaska to help him pay off a loan to a group of Western banks, newspapers reported Thursday.The respected Russian business newspaper Vedomosti reported that Deripaska was among the beneficiaries. This was also reported by The Wall Street Journal and Financial Times, both co-owners of the Russian paper. All three cited unnamed sources.VEB said Thursday it was not ready to release the names of loan recipients.Russia's wealthiest businessmen, dubbed oligarchs, are facing a shakeout after many of them borrowed heavily in recent years, often using their firms' shares as collateral. When Russian stocks plunged over the past few weeks, their creditors began demanding that they put up more collateral or risk losing their shares.Wall Street rises after report on economyU.S. economy shrinks in 3rd quarterExxon Mobil quarterly income hits $14.8 billionDeripaska's aluminum company UC Rusal faces a Friday deadline to repay a $4.5 billion loan to 11 Western banks, which had threatened to seize Rusal's 25 percent stake in metals giant Norilsk Nickel that they hold as collateral.Another reported recipient of the VEB credits is Mikhail Fridman's Alfa Group. Vedomosti said VEB has loaned Alfa Group $2 billion to repay a debt to Deutsche Bank and prevent the loss of its 44 percent stake in VimpelCom, Russia's second-largest cellphone company, which it had pledged as collateral.The state loans to Rusal and Alfa Group would be among the first credits extended under a $50 billion government bailout plan that could shuffle Russia's business elite.VEB would not repay the companies' foreign loans directly and would demand the same stakes as collateral, Vedomosti said. The VEB loans are to be repaid by the end of 2009