Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov has called the information spread by CNN about Russia defaulting on its foreign debt "incorrect".
He elaborated that questions about why investors, including Americans, did not receive their payments should be referred to the US government and the American banks who refused to convert the rubles into dollars - the currency in which the Russian Eurobonds must be paid out.
Russia made the last payment on its eurobonds on 4 April using rubles, due to the banks managing those payments refusing to convert the country's currency into dollars. The banks rejected the operation citing the U.S. sanctions imposed on Russia over its special military operation in Ukraine.
"The illegal actions of American banks and the US government, which halted Russia's payments in foreign currency, blocked the receipt of these payments by some foreign investors", Siluanov explained.
The minister noted that since the majority of Eurobonds are owned by foreigners, including American investors, they suffered the most from the actions of the US government.
CNN previously spread information about Russia defaulting on its foreign debt following the decision by the agency S&P, which had previously withdrawn all ratings related to Russia, to reduce the country's credit rating to SD – selective default. SD is different from general default, reported by the broadcaster, as the latter suggests that the government is not servicing any of its debts, which is not the case with Russia.
"Default means that the debtor does not have the funds to fulfill its debt obligations or is unwilling to service the debt while having the necessary funds. Neither is the case with Russian debt", Siluanov said.
Despite all the attempts to make the Eurobond payments due on 4 April with its foreign currency funds in the US and EU frozen, Russia failed to do so due to the actions of foreign banks. Moscow funnelled ruble equivalents of the payments due to these banks, but they refused to convert them into dollars for the debt owners, citing the US sanctions.
