- S&P downgraded ratings of four Russian insurance companies
- Moody’s lowers rating of 5 Russian companies, including Transneft
- Moody’s rating agency downgrades 12 Russian banks
- Moody's downgrades ratings of 11 Russian regions, 4 cities and 3 state-owned companies
- Moody’s downgrades ratings of Russia’s biggest banks
MOSCOW, March 20. /TASS/. The former Russian Finance Minister and the head of the Civic Initiatives Committee think tank Alexey Kudrin does not think the decisions by international rating agencies to downgrade Russia’s sovereign rating to speculative level were politically motivated.
"I do not think that those decisions were politically motivated," Kudrin said Friday. "Judging from objective indicators of our economy, unfortunately, we’re in this risk zone," he said.
Moody’s rating agency downgraded Russia’s sovereign rating to speculative Ba1 level from Baa3 with negative outlook on February 21, citing the Ukrainian crisis and oil price plunge as the main reasons for the downgrade. Moody’s followed Standard & Poor's in its move to downgrade Russia’s sovereign rating to speculative level.
However, Alexey Kudrin also mentioned the effect of the consequences of anti-Russia sanctions for those decisions. "Sanctions are a political decision, while the rating is a consequence, which stated Russia’s special position on the global markets," he said. "When losing the ratings, we fell out of the race of the world’s economic leaders," Kudrin added.