The Kremlin dismissed allegations of Russia defaulting on its debts, commenting on reports of Moscow rolling back its foreign debt due to defaults on foreign-currency bonds.
“Allegations of default are incorrect because the necessary payment in the currency was made as early as May,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday.
Peskov added that Russian reserves were unduly frozen and the fact that the money was not delivered to the recipients “is not our problem,” referring to the frozen funds by Euroclear, a Belgium-based financial services company that specializes in the settlement of securities transactions.
“Therefore there is no reason to call it a default,” Peskov said.
He added that attempts to use the frozen reserves in any way would be “illegal” and considered by Russia “an outright theft.”
Some basic information: Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, international banks have warned that the country is heading towards default on its foreign debt, threatening to do so. plunge its economy deeper into the crisis.
Default is an ambiguous area in the global economy, and Russia’s situation is complicated by its increasing isolation under the unprecedented sanctions imposed on it by Western powers.
But the ruble has rebounded and is now worth more than it was before the invasion. until McDonald’s reopens In Russia, under the new and proprietary brand.
However, earlier this month US Treasury officials He told CNN They are confident that the sanctions are paying off and that, beneath the surface, a much more dangerous story is unfolding inside the Russian economy, where they claim real and lasting damage is being done.
CNN’s Alison Morrow and Phil Mattingley contributed to this post.