Ukraine war: Russia accuses West of wanting to stage ‘artificial’ default
- Russia denies it can’t fulfil its debt obligations amid warnings of ‘imminent’ default
- Western sanctions have cut Russia off from key parts of global financial markets
Russia’s finance ministry on Monday accused foreign countries of wanting to force Russia into an “artificial default” through unprecedented sanctions over Ukraine and said it would meet its debt obligations.
“The freezing of foreign currency accounts of the Bank of Russia and of the Russian government can be regarded as the desire of a number of foreign countries to organise an artificial default that has no real economic grounds,” finance minister Anton Siluanov said in a statement.
Ratings agency Fitch last week downgraded Russia’s sovereign debt rating farther into junk territory, warning that the decision reflects the view that a default was “imminent”.
But Siluanov denied that Russia “cannot fulfil the obligations” of its government debt. The government is due to pay US$117 million on two of its dollar-denominated bonds on Wednesday.
Technically it has a 30-day grace period, but that is a minor point. If it happens it would represent its first international default since the Bolshevik revolution over a century ago.
Siluanov said Russia “is ready to make payments in roubles” according to the exchange rate of Russia’s central bank on the day of the payment, including its Eurobond issued since 2018.