DD Support Board and Research Team

[BullNBear52]

Russia debt default prospect resurfaces as U.S. blocks bond payment
PUBLISHED TUE, APR 5 202210:42 AM EDT

KEY POINTS
The move on Monday evening prevents the Kremlin from paying holders of its sovereign debt with the more than $600 million of dollar reserves held with U.S. financial institutions.
And it’s aimed at forcing Russia to either use up more of its own stockpile of dollar reserves or accept a first debt default in decades.
Moscow failing to service its debt would mark Russia’s first sovereign default since 1998 and the first sovereign default on foreign currency debt since the Bolshevik Revolution in 1918.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/05/russia-debt-default-prospect-resurfaces-as-us-blocks-bond-payment.html

“Russia is facing a recession, skyrocketing inflation, shortages in essential goods, and a currency that no longer works in much of the world,” a U.S. Treasury spokesperson told CNBC on Tuesday.

The spokesperson added that one of the “most potent” actions of the 700+ sanctions the U.S. has imposed had been those levied on the CBR with “unprecedented multilateral coordination, speed, and impact.”

A $552.4 million principal payment on a bond maturing in 2022 and an $84 million coupon payment on a 2042 sovereign dollar bond came due on Monday, a day after allegations emerged that Russian forces had massacred civilians in towns around the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.

“Today is the deadline for Russia to make another debt payment. Beginning today, the U.S. Treasury will not permit any dollar debt payments to be made from Russian government accounts at U.S. financial institutions,” the Treasury Department spokesperson said.

“Russia must choose between draining remaining valuable dollar reserves or new revenue coming in, or default.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/05/russia-debt-default-prospect-resurfaces-as-us-blocks-bond-payment.html