For the first time, Russia has only paid its foreign debt in rubles instead of US dollars. Altogether it concerns payments for Eurobonds over 649.2 million dollar (595.3 million euro). This time, the Russian Ministry of Finance paid the amount, which was actually due in dollars, in rubles after an American correspondent bank refused to execute the payment order in US currency. The background to this are the Western sanctions against Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov explainedthat there is no reason for national bankruptcy. “Russia has all the resources it needs to pay off its foreign debt,” he said. At the same time, he complains that “considerable sums of our reserves” are frozen and blocked abroad. If this situation persists, Russia will be forced to switch to ruble payments, says Peskov.