Russia makes payment on sovereign debt
A man walks outside the Russian Foreign Ministry in Moscow, Russia. December 20, 2022. (AFP)
Russia's Finance Ministry announced on Friday that it has settled two issues related to dollar-denominated Eurobonds by sending 17 billion rubles ($221.1 million) in coupon payments to the National Settlement Depository (NSD).
The payments were on Eurobonds maturing in 2030, according to the ministry. “Thus, obligations on servicing the state securities of the Russian Federation were fulfilled by the Finance Ministry in full,” the statement said.
The payments were made through the ruble-transaction mechanism, which was implemented last June in reaction to Western sanctions and US efforts to prevent Russia from making debt payments in foreign currency.
Moscow accused Washington of attempting to engineer an artificial default, as the nation was completely capable of paying its debts.
Russia was successful in paying its foreign-currency debt obligations on schedule thanks to the mechanism.
The first Eurobonds-for-rubles payment was made last year in June.
The finance ministry announced at the time that it made the first payment under the new rules, transferring 12.51 billion rubles ($234.85 million at the time) to the NSD for the bank to pay on bonds maturing in 2027 and 2047.