Posted on 04/05/2022 10:22:44 AM PDT by marcusmaximus
The United States stopped the Russian government on Monday from paying holders of its sovereign debt more than $600 million from reserves held at U.S. banks, in a move meant to ratchet up pressure on Moscow and eat into its holdings of dollars.
Under sanctions put in place after Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, foreign currency reserves held by the Russian central bank at U.S. financial institutions were frozen.
But the Treasury Department had been allowing the Russian government to use those funds to make coupon payments on dollar-denominated sovereign debt on a case-by-case basis.
On Monday, as the largest of the payments came due, including a $552.4 million principal payment on a maturing bond, the U.S. government decided to cut off Moscow's access to the frozen funds, according to a U.S. Treasury spokesperson.
An $84 million coupon payment was also due on Monday on a 2042 sovereign dollar bond .
The move was meant to force Moscow to make the difficult decision of whether it would use dollars that it has access to for payments on its debt or for other purposes, including supporting its war effort, the spokesperson said.
Russia faces a historic default if it chooses to not do so.
"Russia must choose between draining remaining valuable dollar reserves or new revenue coming in, or default," the spokesperson said.
JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N), which had been processing payments as a correspondent bank so far, was stopped by the Treasury, a source familiar with the matter said.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
It really is.
Meanwhile, aren’t we STILL buying Russian oil/gas?
As is most of Europe.
Ok...? Cool photo and third grade response.
Now back to the question at hand. It wasn’t ME or any of my friends who loaned them that money. When US Banks and hedge funds no longer get paid, what do you think will happen?
Or it is your fantasy that they will carefully avoid defaulting to people out to destroy them who will never do business with them again?
We’re going to sanction Russia into our own economic grave.
Please get your head out of your @ss and stop being such a gullible fool.
KGB Putin has 30 days to cough up the cash or default. It’s very simple.
He was provoked by an Eastward expansion of NATO, growing from a dozen original members to it's current 30 members.
So President Retard rips off creditors who have nothing to do with his problems 🤪
Why?
The Ukraine is not the USA. It is not (thankfully) part of NATO.
And it is every bit as corrupt as Russia. Maybe more so, if such a thing is possible.
Not our circus. Not our monkeys.
Biden Republicans and Neocons. More damaging to America than anything Putin can cook up.
And? What are the consequences of default? He gonna really worry about not getting any future loans or economic contact? That won’t happen again anyway until after WWIII or a US economic collapse. So why would he care about “defaulting”?
And how do you think that default will affect US Hedge funds, and assuming you have a pension, or investments, how do you think that will roll downhill.
And not to blank out your small brain too much, but what derivatives do you think the most exposed banks have in this spectacle?
Russia is not America’s friend. Never will be.
But there are more terrible threats to America, and wbich are more jmmediate in their risk.
Included in tbose threats are some of the very same forces which are desperate to quash all opposition to their sinister goals..
Those who dwell under rocks can’t see very far beyond the edge. Isolationism thus comes naturally
IIRC a lot of US Pension funds own Russian debt. Good interest, and stable payments - unless the US Government just blocks payment of course.
The money has been stolen. Maybe a Pension fund will go bust.
I read that CALPERS dumped its Russian assets, but maybe they haven’t done so yet.
This is the same kind of crap we did to the Japanese in the 1930s, and look what that bought us.
You’re right.
So the US government, is steeling/freezing Russia’s funds without any due process, and this is a good thing?
Forgive me, I am no fan of Putin or this war in any way, but someone explain to me how this is a good thing?
If someone is so stupid to think that making the U.S. a place where people can’t safely place their money because it’s stolen harms Putin, trying to educate him might be a waste of time.
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