The US announces the end of the exemption from the payment of Russia’s debt in dollars

USA will end a waiver that allows Moscow to pay its foreign commitments with dollars starting at 0401 GMT on Wednesday (0001 Washington time), the Treasury Department announced on Tuesday.

The end of that waiver comes two days before the next Russian debt service payment is due, which is about $100 million in interest on its obligations, leaving Moscow exposed to eventual default on its obligations. .

In force since the beginning of Western sanctions against Russia in retaliation for the invasion of Ukraine launched on February 24, this exemption had allowed Moscow to escape default until now.

The measure had been decided by Washington to allow “an orderly transition and investors to sell their securities”, explained last week the US Secretary of the Treasury, Janet Yellen, who had also indicated the “probable” suppression of the measure.

Russia, for its part, could no longer pay the debt with dollars in US banks, within the framework of the reinforced sanctions decreed by the United States on April 5.

The governor of the Russian central bank, Elvira Nabioullina, acknowledged on April 29 that Moscow was facing “payment difficulties”, but refused to talk about her country’s potential entry into default.

Russia’s external debt represents, according to the Ministry of Finance, between 4,500,000 and 4,700,000 rubles (78,000 to 81,000 million dollars at the current rate), that is, 20% of its total public debt.

Source: Elcomercio

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