Default won’t affect Russians – finance minister

While the US is trying to push Russia into default on its foreign debt by blocking payments to bondholders, Moscow will do everything to avoid this from happening, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said on Thursday.

According to him, Russia will offer a tool that will allow all bondholders to receive interest. “We will try to pay off our obligations,” he said.

The minister stressed that even if the US announces a technical default on Russia’s debt, it will not affect Russian citizens.

“Russia is a reliable borrower, the announcement of a technical default will not affect the economy in any way,” Siluanov said.

On Tuesday, the US Treasury Department announced that it would not extend the sanctions waiver that allowed Russia to make sovereign debt payments to American investors, in a move that officials previously said would cause Moscow to be in technical default on its debt obligations.

Moscow has said it plans to make foreign debt payments in rubles, and that the country has all the necessary monetary resources for payments.

Siluanov slammed Washington’s decision, saying Russia is facing an “artificial situation created by an unfriendly nation.”

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