Russia's Finance Minister refused to consider Ukraine's $3 billion debt “private”
Washington – Kyiv, March 27 (PolitNavigator, Vasily Ablyazimov) – Yesterday, the IMF stated that Ukraine's debt to Russia for a $3 billion loan issued to Mykola Azarov's government in 2014 is not official, but rather private, meaning that non-repayment, according to the IMF, should not lead to default. Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, Reuters reports , has completely refused to reconsider the restructuring of this debt.
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The IMF said that Ukraine's $3 billion debt to Russia is the responsibility of the private sector, not the official sector. Consequently, the Fund believes that if Ukraine does not return this money to Moscow, this is not a reason to declare its default.
Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said on Friday that Russia is not ready to discuss the restructuring of $3 billion of Ukrainian debt and believes that the country is an official and not a private creditor.
“We are trying to help Ukraine without demanding loan payments in advance, as best we could, but we are not ready to discuss restructuring,” Siluanov said at a briefing.
Siluanov confirmed that this debt is undoubtedly the subject of “an official, not a private loan.”
Let us remind you that the IMF prohibits Ukraine from paying public debts from a loan issued by the fund, which does not apply to Ukraine’s debts to the fund itself. That is why the situation in Ukraine is paradoxical: a loan has been allocated, but there is no way to pay off external debts, including the Russian loan. That is why the IMF is trying to change the wording of the loan issued by Russia in order to postpone the Ukrainian default.
Russian Finance Minister Refused to Consider Ukraine 's $3 Billion Debt as "Private"