Russia avoided default, Tinkov says goodbye to the country. The main news of the conference for the day
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Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is one of the worst economic crises in modern Russian history. The Russian service of the BBC talks about the main economic events of the day.
Russia avoided default
Investors who invested in Russian bonds began to receive payments, Bloomberg writes. This means that no default will be declared in Russia on May 4 – the department is only 11 hours away from this country.
Clearing centers have received and processed payments for the issuance of Eurobonds maturing in 2022 and 2042, the agency writes, citing sources. The money has already begun to flow into the bank account. In total, we are talking about 650 million dollars.
In early April, Russia was supposed to make payments on its obligations, but the transfer of these funds was frozen by a foreign correspondent bank. Reuters then wrote that the Ministry of Finance fired from Russian frozen reserves. The US authorities then considered that payments on bonds were possible only from foreign exchange earnings or those remaining in the country’s reserves.
In the end, the Russian Ministry of Finance transferred funds in rubles. In view of the fact that foreign investors could hardly deal with private banks in Russian banks. Rating agencies to assess that Russia is not affected with six exceptions. From April 4, a month went by, during which the country had to find a way to pay for this paper – this period should have taken place on May 4.
Bloomberg writes that Russia is using boiled reserves to avoid default.
However, the threat of default has not completely passed: on May 25, the license that allows US citizens to receive payments from the central bank, the Treasury Department and the National Welfare Fund ended. After that, US citizens will need a special license for such payments.
On May 27, Russia will have to provide payments for a bond issue, one of them possible in the future in rubles, and the next in euros, pounds or Swiss francs and not only to an account in US banks, writes Bloomberg.
A default is unlikely to significantly worsen the economic situation in Russia. Under normal conditions, failure to fulfill obligations requires an outflow of contact with the markets and their collapse, a sharp rubdown and loss of reputation. However, all this has already happened to the Russian economy against the backdrop of the war with Ukraine. The ruble and the markets have been quite stable in recent months, but mainly due to restrictions from the central bank.
Putin signs a decree on retaliatory measures for unfriendly countries
While President Putin spends foreign currency on payments to foreign investors, Vladimir Putin approved a decree on retaliatory economic measures in connection with the “unfriendly actions” of other countries.
True, this decree is quite a framework: it did not reveal any identified cases, and the only country that is mentioned in it is the United States.
Indicates the prohibition of public legal liability and appearance, as well as enters into closed obligations to government agencies and fulfills the obligation to conclude contractual transactions with legal entities and external external sanctions. They are also prohibited from producing products and commodities.
Putin gave the government 10 days to prepare a list of people under sanctions.
Tinkov says goodbye to the bank and Russia
“Goodbye Tinkoff Bank, Goodbye Russia,” businessman Oleg Tinkov wrote on his Instagram (punctuation retained).
The businessman says that he has nothing left in Russia. “And it’s bad for Russia. I was one of the options who went all out against, and not by accident, the regime to build 4 different businesses from scratch!” he wrote.
A few weeks ago, Tinkov wrote a post on Instagram in which he called the war “crazy”, people who draw the letter Z “morons”, and the Russian army “shit”. After that, Tinkoff Bank, founded by a businessman, announced rebranding.
In the end, it became known that Tinkov was selling his stake in the bank to Vladimir Potanin’s Interros.
In a new entry on Tuesday, Tinkov told what came to him after the first post. He also stated that he was taking the TINKOFF and LA DATCHA brands from the country so as not to stain them with “the blood of Russian soldiers and residents of Ukraine.”
“It’s a pity that my country has finally slipped into archaism, paternalism and servility. There is no Russia, but the whole thing has left,” the businessman wrote.
After the businessman’s statement, the bank’s press service told the TASS news agency that all legal rights to the Tinkoff brand belong to the bank.