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Russia has all necessary means and potential to prevent default on public debt — Kremlin

Dmitry Peskov stressed that "any default that could hypothetically occur could be purely artificial"

MOSCOW, March 17. /TASS/. Russia has all the means and resources to prevent a default on the public debt, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday.

"The fact remains: from the very start we said that Russia has all the necessary funds and potential not to bring the situation to defaults. Actually, there can be no defaults, because Russia has the necessary funds," Peskov said.

The Kremlin official stressed that "any default that could hypothetically occur could be purely artificial."

"It's good that all processes are going as usual in this regard," Peskov added.

When asked whether the fact that Russia managed to make the payment in foreign currency could be a positive signal that the West would not go for overly harsh measures, Peskov replied:

"Let's not read tealeaves about what the West is ready for. This is a thankless task," he said.

Earlier on Thursday, the government’s press service reported that Russia has repaid coupons on the external debt to the tune of $117 mln in foreign currency and there are no problems with servicing the public debt.