There was no sign of relief among Russia's creditors on Friday.

The news surrounding the interest payments of 117 million dollars for two Russian government bonds due since last Wednesday was too unclear.

In addition, further payments from Russia are pending, which could fail due to the sanctions in the financial sector.

Markus Fruehauf

Editor in Business.

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Then it would be a technical default, the first in Russia since the October Revolution of 1917, when the communists refused to pay the tsar's debts.

The news agencies Reuters and Bloomberg quoted investors who had received their interest payments on the two government bonds.

But the money didn't seem to have arrived in Asia yet.

Even a German investor who holds one of the two Russian bonds has not yet been able to confirm receipt of payment.

Despite this, prices for Russian government bonds recovered and risk premiums for hedging against default also fell.

While an upfront fee of $6 million had to be paid in midweek to hedge a $10 million claim against Russia using credit default swaps (CDS), the figure on Friday was around $4 million.

Russia has reportedly cooperated with JP Morgan

According to a Bloomberg report, Russia is said to have transferred the $117 million via its correspondent bank JP Morgan.

The American bank is said to have forwarded the sum to Citigroup, which is responsible for distributing interest payments among investors.

Bloomberg cites sources that do not wish to be named.

According to these, Citigroup is said to have asked the American authorities whether the payment of interest would violate the sanctions.

The authorities are said to have denied this and thus approved the transfers.

However, whether this will also be the case for the interest payments of more than 615 million dollars due in March must be put with a question mark.

Then, on April 4, a $2 billion bond has to be repaid.

Recent bonds contain a ruble clause

Even if the latest interest payment is made, investors need to be aware that upcoming payments may be regulated differently, said Jonny Goulden, senior emerging markets strategist at JP Morgan.

In recent years, for example, Russia has issued bonds with a clause stating that payments in dollars can also be made in rubles.

That was not the case with the two dollar bonds whose interest payments were due on Wednesday.

Here the payments must be made in dollars.

The rating agencies are also preparing for a default by Russia.

S&P Global lowered the rating from "CCC-" to "CC" because the credit checkers expect technical problems with the payments in the coming weeks.

These are due to the sanctions intended to isolate Russia from the international financial market and cut off access to dollars or euros.

Numerous banks have been excluded from the Swift payment network.

The country is hit even harder by the measures taken against the Russian central bank, whose foreign exchange and gold reserves have been frozen.