Russia will file a lawsuit against Ukraine, the Russian finance ministry said, after Kiev failed to repay a $3
billion Eurobond and $75 million in interest by Dec. 31. The decision was
expected as Russia had repeatedly said it would regard nonpayment as a default
and file a lawsuit.
The Eurobond was issued by the government of the former
President Viktor Yanukovych in late 2013 and bought by Russia in its entirety.
Ukraine’s prime minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, had said that Ukraine would not
repay the Eurobond and that it was ready to fight the issue in court. A grace
period for repayment expired on Thursday.
The bond was issued just two months
before Mr. Yanukovych fled in the face of bloody street protests set off by his
seeking to halt Ukraine’s swing toward European integration in favor of closer
economic ties with Russia. Ukraine, which separately reached an agreement with
private creditors to restructure its sovereign and sovereign-guaranteed debt,
insisted that the Eurobond was commercial debt and that it could not offer
Russia a better deal than other creditors.
Russia says the debt is official,
country-to-country lending and outside the scope of Kiev’s agreement with
private creditors.
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