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Russia’s finance minister said the country would fulfill its debt obligations but would issue payment in rubles until Western nations unfreeze its foreign-currency reserves. The announcement comes ahead of payments due to be made Wednesday on two Russian government dollar bonds. Under the terms of those two specific bonds, payments can only be made in dollars, meaning ruble payment could set the stage for a default on its dollar debt. Bonds typically also have a 30-day grace period for payment.

Russia and Ukraine could hold a new round of peace talks as soon as Monday, according to Ukrainian authorities — with US officials crediting the crippling economic sanctions against the Kremlin for the move. Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, said Sunday that both parties are working with mediators from Israel and Turkey to sort out potential topics of discussion — including a cease-fire and a withdrawal of Russian troops — and where and when the talks would be held.

Russian and Ukrainian officials gave their most upbeat assessments yet on Sunday of progress in their talks on the war in Ukraine, suggesting there could be positive results within days. Separately, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said Russia was showing signs of willingness to engage in substantive negotiations about ending a conflict in which thousands have died. More than 2.5 million people have fled. -snip- RIA news agency quoted a Russian delegate, Leonid Slutsky, as saying the talks had made substantial progress. "According to my personal expectations, this progress may grow in the coming days into a joint...

The Moscow Exchange said Saturday the country’s main stock market will stay closed next week, through March 18. The stock market hasn’t opened since Feb. 25, the day after the invasion and just before the West unveiled a punishing round of sanctions on Russia’s financial system. The suspension delays what is likely to be a painful reckoning for investors in Russian stocks. While trading in Russia has been halted, shares of Russian companies listed in international markets such as London and New York have plunged.

Russia's central bank on Saturday said it has decided not to reopen stock market trading on the Moscow Exchange from March 14-18, with the exception of some non-open-market transactions and transactions using the SPFI payment system.

Pimco is at risk of losing up to $2.6 billion if Russia fails to make its debt payments, after the asset manager bet big against a default, according to a Financial Times report. The investing giant holds $1.5 billion in Russian Federation-linked government bonds, the report said, and it had sold $1.1 billion in credit default swaps, or CDS, on Russian sovereign debt at the start of 2022. That means Pimco is vulnerable to lose out on two fronts — the bond holdings and the CDS — if Russia does default on its sovereign debt, which Fitch Ratings has warned...

The Moscow stock exchange will stay shut Wednesday, Russia's central bank said, bringing the closure well into the second week. The central bank also halted sales of foreign currency, as tough sanctions threaten to crush Russia's economy. The Russian ruble is trading at less than 1 cent, and the country's stocks are seen as "uninvestable". Moscow's stock exchange remained shuttered Wednesday, extending its closure well into a second week, as escalating sanctions against Russia threatened to hobble the country's economy. Russia's central bank has opened trading on its currency market, even as it separately stopped the sale of foreign currencies....

Russia will soon be unable to pay its debts, according to a leading credit ratings agency. Fitch Ratings downgraded its view of the country's government debt, warning a default is "imminent". The move comes amid increasing international sanctions against Russia following its invasion of Ukraine. A credit rating is intended to help investors understand the level of risk they face in buying a country's debt - or bonds. A low rating means the chances of not getting repaid is considered to be high - and so an investor will charge more to lend to that country. This week, Moscow itself...

Crimea's [Head Of Republic] But Mr Aksyonov denied that Russia had done anything wrong. Sergei Aksyonov said the annexation of the peninsula by Russia one year ago had been a "democratic act". "I can tell you that no-one took anything," he told the BBC's John Simpson. "That was the choice of the Crimeans. Nothing could happen without the support of the local population which is why this was not an act of aggression, but a real democratic act. "This is the main mistake and misunderstanding of Western leaders. People are misinformed by the media which is failing to give an...

An election silence day begins Saturday in the Autonomous Ukrainian Republic of Crimea, where most residents are Russians, and the city of Sevastopol, which has a special status in Ukraine, prior to the March 16 secession referendum. “However, being guided by international standards of organization of the voting process, including referendums, we decided that there should be ‘a day of silence’,” Polonsky said. He said it means that Crimean media, including television, would see no campaigning for the autonomy to become or not become part of Russia, but that there would be no ban on urging residents to vote.