THE Russia will serve liabilities of its foreign debt in rublesif the United States is blocking other optionsand will not declare a moratorium on payments, said Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov.
Washington is considering blocks Russia’s ability to pay for US-held bondsletting the May 25 deadline expire, which will bring Moscow closer to a moratorium on payments.
Moscow will have to make another Eurobond payment on May 27.
«We are not going to declare a moratorium on payments, we have money – unless Western countries make it impossible for us to service our debt“, Said the Minister of Finance during the work of the economic forum. «If the western financial institutions close the door on us, we will be able to pay and we will pay in rubles as a last resort».
The western ones sanctions imposed in Russia ban transactions with the Russian Ministry of Financethe Central Bank and the National Resources Fund of Russia.
But the U.S. waiver, issued by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on March 2, provided for an exemption from “interest, dividends, or maturity payments related to debt or equity.”
This allowed Moscow to continue to pay investors and avoid default on its external debt. It allowed American investors to continue to receive interest on bonds.
Following the waiver on May 25, Russia will be required to make $ 2 billion in bond payments by the end of the year.
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