Russia Defaults On Its Foreign Debt For The First Time Since The Bolshevik Revolution In 1918

Bloomberg: Russia Defaults on Foreign Debt for First Time Since 1918 

(Bloomberg) -- Russia defaulted on its foreign-currency sovereign debt for the first time in a century, the culmination of ever-tougher Western sanctions that shut down payment routes to overseas creditors. 

For months, the country found paths around the penalties imposed after the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine. But at the end of the day on Sunday, the grace period on about $100 million of snared interest payments due May 27 expired, a deadline considered an event of default if missed.

It’s a grim marker in the country’s rapid transformation into an economic, financial and political outcast. The nation’s eurobonds have traded at distressed levels since the start of March, the central bank’s foreign reserves remain frozen, and the biggest banks are severed from the global financial system.  

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WNU Editor: This default is mostly symbolic. Russia has more than enough funds that are frozen in the central banks of North America and Europe to pay these financial notes. This issue is now going to the courts, and I predict that it will take years before it is resolved. In the meantime the Russia ruble is worth more today than before the start of the war (link here). 

Russia Defaults On Its Foreign Debt For The First Time Since 1918  

Russia defaults on foreign debt for first time in 100 years -- Financial Review  

Sanctions drive Russia to first foreign debt default since 1918 -- Axios  

Russia defaults on foreign debt for first time since 1918 -- MINT  

EXPLAINER: What’s the impact of a Russian debt default? -- AP