(Moscow) Russia said on Friday it had made dollar payments on dollar debts, as the country faces Western sanctions over its offensive in Ukraine, raising fears of a default.
Posted at 12:07 p.m.
The Department of Finance said in a statement that it had made coupon payments totaling $650 million on two bonds maturing in 2022 and 2042 “in the currency of issue of the Eurobonds: the US dollar. “.
At the beginning of April, Moscow had tried to settle a dollar debt in rubles, the US Treasury Department no longer allowing it to repay its debt with dollars held in US banks.
The financial rating agency S&P Global Ratings has accordingly lowered Russia’s rating for its foreign currency payments to the level of “selective default”. The rating for foreign currency payments was lowered to “SD” (last notch before “D” for default), while the rating remained at “CC” for ruble payments.
S&P immediately indicated that it was ceasing its ratings of Russia, like the agencies Fitch and Moody’s.
Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina assured the press on Friday that “we cannot speak of a default”, while acknowledging that Moscow is facing “payment difficulties”.
Russia missed payments on domestic ruble debts during the 1998 financial crisis, but has not defaulted on its foreign debt since 1918 when Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin refused to recognize the debt inherited from the toppled tsarist regime. during the revolution of 1917.