Economist Mikhail Belyaev, in an interview with Izvestia, expressed the opinion that the United States would be forced to withdraw the decision to refuse to renew Russia’s license to service external public debt.
“The American side gets the money. As they make such decisions, they are canceled in the same way within a day. The precedent will be exhausted in exactly the same way, ”the economist believes.
Belyaev added that it is not so much Russia that is interested in paying off the state debt, but creditors. He explained: Moscow considers it necessary to service the debt only on moral principles, and also to confirm the reputation of a reliable payer.
On May 24, the US Treasury announced that it would not renew a license allowing Russia to make payments to service its foreign debt. It expired on May 25 at 07:01 Moscow time. The OFAC license allowed transactions necessary to receive payments on debt obligations of the RF Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Russia.
The fact that in the United States, with a high probability, will not renew the license for servicing Russia’s sovereign debt, said on May 18 the head of the US Treasury Department, Janet Yellen.
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 Russia, in particular, fulfilled in rubles all obligations on Eurobonds in the amount of $649.2 million.