A possible “default” of Russia will not have an impact on the American and world economy. The United States announced this forecast on Thursday, May 26, by White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
“We expect the impact on the global and US economies to be minimal, given that Russia is already in a state of financial isolation,” she said at a regular briefing.
She added that the administration of the American president expects that Russia will not be able to service its obligations on the public debt.
On May 24, the US Treasury announced that it would not renew a license allowing Russia to make payments to service its foreign debt. In this connection, on May 25, the Ministry of Finance of Russia announced its readiness to continue servicing and repaying all debt obligations, but to do this in the currency of the Russian Federation with the possibility of subsequent conversion of rubles into the original currency of the obligation.
At the same time, the Russian Ministry of Finance announced that Moscow will now fulfill its debt obligations in rubles “with the possibility of subsequent conversion into the original currency of the obligation.” They also stressed that they are ready to continue servicing and repaying all debt obligations, but on the conditions described above.
On May 18, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said that the country would not default on the debt, since it would be able to pay in rubles if the structures of the West were closed.
Before that, on May 5, it was reported that Russia would once again face the risk of a technical default on May 27. On this day, coupons for Russia-2026 and Russia-2036 are to be redeemed. Eurobonds “Russia-2026” were issued in 2016 with maturity in 2026 in the amount of $71.25 million. Also, the payment on Eurobonds “Russia-2036” (issue of 2021) was scheduled for this day, the coupon will be €26.5 million.
As early as April 6, Dmitry Peskov, press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation, 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.