Russian Finance Ministry ready to prove in court payments on Eurobonds - Siluanov

MOSCOW. April 11 (Interfax) - The Russian Finance Ministry is ready to prove in court that the country has made every effort to render payments on its sovereign Eurobonds, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said.

"Of course, we will file a lawsuit, because we have taken all the necessary steps to ensure that investors receive their payments. We will present our payments in court, confirming our efforts to pay both in foreign currency and in rubles," Siluanov said in an interview with the Izvestia publication.

"It will not be an easy process. We will have to prove our case very actively despite all the difficulties," Siluanov added.

The Finance Ministry previously announced that it had rendered payments on the dollar-denominated Russia 2022 and Russia 2042 issues in rubles because of the United States' ban on using frozen foreign exchange reserves to service external debt.

International rating agencies believe that payments in rubles on foreign currency debt would mean a default for Russia. In particular, S&P Global Ratings on Saturday night downgraded the long-term and short-term ratings of the Russian Federation in foreign currency to the level of selective default.

"While a default could be cleared within the 30-day grace period stipulated in the terms and conditions of the bond issue, we do not expect investors to be able to convert the ruble payments into the originally envisaged dollar equivalent, or that the government would convert the payments during the grace period," S&P Global Ratings said in the press release.