Russia’s previous debt arrears go back to the last century, when Moscow did not repay its international creditors after the Bolshevik revolution.
The credit rating agency Moody’s now considers that the Russian Federation declared a moratorium on its external public debt.
The house explained in a statement that it ended up in this crisis because Moscow did not repay interest on two government bondsafter the expiration of the grace period of thirty days yesterday Monday.
Russia’s previous debt arrears go back to the last century, when Moscow did not repay its international creditors after the Bolshevik revolution.
Russia’s most recent default was in 1998, when oil prices fell and the ruble collapsed, but only Russia’s domestic creditors were affected.
Remarkably, the announcement of a suspension of payments this time is not due to a lack of cash from the Russian state – Moscow’s coffers are full, thanks to high energy prices – but to technical issues related to the processing of payments, due to Western sanctions in Russia which make their execution impossible.
Moscow has made normal payments and is being hampered by Western sanctions “It is not our problem”, judged yesterday o Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peshkov, according to the Interfax news agency. For the Russian government, this is an “artificial” suspension of payments.
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