Guy Faulconbridge and Karin Strohecker
Reuters, Mar. 6, 2022
“It could be Russia’s first major debt default in more than a century.”
Russia said on Sunday that sovereign bond payments will depend on sanctions imposed by the West over the invasion of Ukraine, raising the spectre of its first major default on foreign bonds since the years following the 1917 Bolshevik revolution.
Russia’s finance ministry said it would service and pay sovereign debts in full and on time but that payments could be hampered by the international sanctions.
“The actual possibility of making such payments to non-residents will depend on the limiting measures introduced by foreign states in relation to the Russian Federation,” the finance ministry said in a statement.
That raises the possibility of a technical default on debt by Russia after much of its $640 billion in reserves were frozen by the West after President Vladimir Putin ordered what Russia describes as a special military operation in Ukraine on Feb. 24.
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