Explained: Russia defaults on foreign debt for the first time since 1918

For the first time in over 100 years, Putin-led Russia has defaulted on paying its debt to foreign lenders as the war with Ukraine continues and payment routes continue to be sealed off due to sanctions. Russia despite a 30-day grace period defaulted in repaying $100 million of snared interest payments.

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Russia calls any default artificial because it has the money to pay its debts but says sanctions have frozen its foreign currency reserves held abroad.

“There is money and there is also the readiness to pay," Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said last month. “This situation, artificially created by an unfriendly country, will not have any effect on Russians’ quality of life.”

The Kremlin continues to press the point of having the ability to make the payment in Rubles, something the creditors were unaccepting of, 'forcing' a foreign debt default for the first time since 1918.

Russia owes about $40 billion in foreign bonds, about half of that to foreigners. Before the start of the war, Russia had around $640 billion in foreign currency and gold reserves, much of which was held overseas and is now frozen.

Russia has faced economic crisis before but even then the default was local not overseas. During Russia’s financial crisis and ruble collapse of 1998, President Boris Yeltsin’s government defaulted on $40 billion of its local debt.