Russia is intent on focusing more on selling its debt to investors from Asia and Europe and may adjust the currencies of its bond issues, as it is struck by new US sanctions. However, it won't change the amount planned for 2020, a senior Finance Ministry official said.
As punishment for Moscow poisoning of a former Russian double agent, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter, Yulia, the U.S. in August banned U.S. banks from buying sovereign Eurobonds directly from Russia Moscow has denied any wrongdoing.
Konstantin Vyshkovsky, head of the state debt department at the Finance Ministry, said the sanctions that came into force on Aug. 26 will not cancel the ministry's plan to borrow abroad but the ministry needs time to study their possible impact.
"The recent decisions of political nature by our U.S. colleagues and the ban on the participation of U.S. financial institutions in our primary offerings are an unfavorable factor that will clearly affect our actions," Vyshkovsky said.
The Finance Ministry will need to study the availability of the dollar debt market when making the decision on whether to move away from issuing Eurobonds denominated in the U.S. currency, Vyshkovsky told themoscowtimes.com.