Russia officially announced early payment of the debt on March 31, but in Russian currency instead of dollars, which means the country's default.
The probability of declaring Russia's default after April 4 has increased to a fact, as the Russian Ministry of Finance has already announced the early redemption of foreign bond loans in rubles instead of dollars.
“Payment for the redemption of the Bonds, including accrued coupon income on the date of payment, will be made on March 31, 2022 in the currency of the Russian Federation at the official exchange rate of the Bank of Russia ,” the ministry said in a statement.
Thus, the non-payment of debt obligations in dollars on April 4 will trigger a grace period of 30 days, after which there will be a default, cutting off Russia, which has already been cut off from financial markets, until the end of litigation and payments.
It will be recalled that the pre- default situation in Russia has already developed as of March 16 , when previous payments on foreign debt were made. Given the sanctions, experts doubted that Russia would be able to make these payments in dollars. However , at the last moment, Russia found the necessary amount and made payments in dollars.
At the same time, experts postponed the possible default of the country to April 4, calling future payments unlikely. The difference between the situation on March 16 is that Russia has already officially announced that it will not pay in dollars.
