In the event of a technical “default” on dollar payments, which could result from Russia’s deprivation of its general license to pay its foreign debt, Moscow would pay in rubles and apply to international courts. This was announced on May 27 by the investment strategist of Arikapital Management Company Sergey Suverov.
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According to him, an artificial default is beneficial for the US.
“The default of Russia will be a recognition of the effectiveness of sanctions and pressure on the country. In response, Russia will probably pay in rubles and go to international courts with claims about the illegality of the default, ”the Prime agency quotes him as saying.
The expert clarified that Russia has the ability and desire to repay the debt, despite the freezing of the Central Bank’s reserves in the amount of about $300 billion. As he recalled, the volume of debt on bonded loans is about $39 billion.
Suverov also noted that the market for foreign loans is closed to Russia due to sanctions, probably for many years, in connection with this, the situation in the Russian economy is unlikely to change.
News about a possible technical “default” after their appearance did not affect the ruble exchange rate either, the investment strategist concluded.
The day before, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that a possible “default” of Russia would not have an impact on the American and global economy, since the Russian Federation is already “in a state of financial isolation.”
In addition, the fact that the announcement of a technical default will not affect the economy of the Russian Federation, said Finance Minister Anton Siluanov. He added that Russia is a reliable borrower and will try to pay off its public debt obligations.
On May 25, the Ministry of Finance of Russia confirmed its readiness to continue servicing and repaying all debt obligations, but will do this in the currency of the Russian Federation with the possibility of subsequent conversion of rubles into the original currency of the obligation.
A day earlier, the US Treasury announced that it would not renew a license allowing Russia to make payments to service its foreign debt. The OFAC license allowed transactions necessary to receive payments on debt obligations of the RF Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Russia. It was released almost immediately after the introduction of tough anti-Russian sanctions.
On April 6, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov assured that Russia has all the resources to pay for external debts, despite the fact that significant amounts of Russian reserves are blocked. He noted that obligations in rubles on Eurobonds in the amount of $649.2 million have already been fulfilled.
On March 23, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the collective West, having decided to freeze Russian reserves, declared a default against the Russian Federation and drew a line under the reliability of its currencies.
Western countries began to impose new sanctions in response to Russia’s conduct of a special operation to protect the Donbass, the beginning of which was announced on February 24.