Forbes: Washington banned Moscow from paying its debts from the frozen reserves of the Central Bank

Forbes magazine clarified the new order of the US Treasury Department: from now on, the international investment bank JPMorgan is prohibited from processing new payments on coupons totaling more than $600 million, which were due on April 4th. By the way, before that, Russia, despite conducting a military special operation in Ukraine, was allowed to make five payments.

According to Forbes, starting from February 24, the Central Bank's foreign exchange reserves were frozen, but the US Treasury allowed them to be used to pay coupons on dollar bonds. In early April, Moscow had to pay back $552.4 million and $84 million in bonds. This publication was reported by sources in the US Treasury.

A spokesman for the US Treasury said in this regard that the move, according to the White House, "should force Moscow to use the dollars it has available for payments on sovereign debt, and not for other purposes, including the" military operation "in Ukraine. In other words, the Russians must choose "between new revenue and default."

As it turns out, Russia has a total of 15 issues of international bonds outstanding, with a face value of about 40 billion. The U.S. believes that if it fails to make any of its forthcoming bond payments by a predetermined date, or pays in rubles, it will mean default. In this case, Moscow will be denied access to Western financial markets until all debts to creditors are fully repaid.