Moody's said that Russia had defaulted on its foreign debt obligations, according to a statement published on the agency’s website on Monday.
"On 27 June, holders of Russia's sovereign debt had not received coupon payments on two eurobonds worth $100 million by the time the 30-calendar-day grace period expired, which we consider an event of default under our definition," the statement said.
In May, the United States let lapse its license to pay bondholders which allowed Russia to service its foreign debt. Last week, Russia for the first time used a new mechanism to pay its Eurobond coupon in rubles. Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said this was in no way a default. According to Siluanov, the United States and the European Union are cooking up fictitious obstacles to servicing Russia's foreign debt in order to "put the 'default' label on it.
