Kremlin disagrees with assertion on Russia's default

MOSCOW. June 27 (Interfax) - The Kremlin disagrees that Russia has defaulted on its foreign-currency sovereign debt, Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said.

Asked by journalists on Monday whether the Kremlin agrees with the assertion about Russia's default, Peskov replied, "No, it doesn't."

The 30-day grace period during which Russia was supposed to resolve the problem of making coupon payments on Russia-2026 and Russia-2036 bonds in dollars and euros expired on Monday.

Bloomberg said foreign investors have not received these payments, which means Russia is in a state of default now.

The payments on these bond issues were due on May 27. However, OFAC, the U.S. Treasury Department unit responsible for sanctions enforcement, announced that it would not be renewing a license allowing transactions, which expired on May 25.

The Russian Finance Ministry transferred the money to the National Settlement Depository (NSD) as a payment agent on May 20, a week prior to the payment deadline on said issues, and declared that it fulfilled its obligation on servicing the debt in line with the issue documents. The NSD declared that it transferred the payment to the depositors.

The coupon payment on the 2026 issue is $71.25 million and that on the 2036 issue is 26.5 million euros.