“A foreign bank refused to execute instructions” to pay an amount of 649.2 million dollars due on April 4, the minister said in a statement.
Therefore, “it was necessary to resort to a Russian financial institution to make the necessary payments (…) in the currency of the Russian Federation.”
The Finance Ministry did not specify whether payment in rubles was accepted.
Although many analysts say that Russia is heading for a default, the country has avoided such a situation until now thanks to the use of foreign currencies that Moscow has in other countries to pay its external debts.
But on Tuesday the US Treasury Department announced that it would not authorize Russia to repay its debt with the dollars that are in US bankswhich forces pressure on Moscow and increases the risk of a default.
“There is no basis for a real default,” defended the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, before the press. “Russia has all the necessary resources to satisfy its debt,” he added.
For Timothy Ash, an analyst at Blue Bay Asset, “it is difficult for Russia to avoid a sovereign default.” “A default is a default. The markets will judge it that way. Investors weren’t paid and they will remember it,” he argued.
Russia’s huge reserves abroad, equivalent to 300,000 million dollars, were frozen under international sanctions in response to its military intervention in Ukraine.
Source: Ambito
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