Finance Ministry: Moscow to challenge U.S. actions should Russian state debt be sanctioned

Washington’s actions if the US imposes sanctions against Russia’s sovereign securities to be challenged, Russian Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak said.

"We will challenge the US authorities’ actions (in case of sanctions against Russia’s state debt), attack to the extent possible. We have platforms suitable for that, first of all, the G20 platform, the Financial Stability Council platform," TASS cited Storchak as saying.

"So far there is no information as to whether the US Treasury has changed the position announced at the end of February. The behavior of investors dealing with the Russian debt is more proactive rather than based on an unbiased assessment of the US authorities’ actions. They seek to pre-empt withdrawing their assets from OFZ," the finance minister explained.

As reported earlier the U.S. might tighten sanctions in November, particularly by banning transactions with the Russian sovereign debt with maturity over two weeks (only concerns new placements) and restricting dollar transactions of the largest Russian banks.