Today was the deadline on a $117 million interest payment on Russia’s foreign bonds, the first payment since Washington’s imposition of hellish sanctions on Russia in late February, which included the “freezing” (read stealing) of about $300 billion in Russian central bank reserves deposited abroad. Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov instructed a correspondent bank to pay the creditors in rubles, and he then put the onus on the U.S. to allow the conversion of those payments to dollars out of the stolen assets.
“The capability or incapability of meeting our obligations in foreign currency equivalent does not depend on us,” Siluanov stated. “We have the money, we have made the payment, now the ball is in the court, primarily, of the American authorities.” Siluanov has previously accused the West of trying to engineer an “artificial default” by stealing Russia’s funds.
