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On Sunday, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said that Moscow has lost access to $300bn of its $640bn in gold and foreign exchange reserves due to the unprecedented sanctions on the country.

He also added: 

“We have part of our gold and foreign exchange reserves in the Chinese currency, in yuan. And we see what pressure is being exerted by Western countries on China in order to limit mutual trade with China. Of course, there is pressure to limit access to those reserves”

Russia is also supposed to pay $117 million in interest on two sovereign Eurobonds on Wednesday, 16 March. It could go into default territory if it is unable to pay. Russia has not defaulted on its foreign currency debt since 1918 and has defaulted only once domestically in 1998.

A failure to pay will lead to a default and further downgrading of its financial institution. It can also affect its ability to restructure debt or borrow money in the future.

 (IFI = International financial institutions)

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