MOSCOW, April 6. /TASS/. Russia made the proper decision by honoring its foreign debt liabilities in rubles, having no opportunity to do so in foreign currency, senior banker of VEB.RF Sergey Storchak told TASS.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Russian Finance Ministry said that it had for the first time perform in rubles obligations to foreign holders of sovereign Eurobonds Russia-2022 and Russia-2042 worth $649.2 mln because of the refusal of the foreign agent bank to perform orders in foreign currency.

"I cannot recall precedents in my entire career that the debtor ready to service its foreign debt commitments has been deprived of such possibility due to exclusively nonfinancial reasons, probably in the mainstream politics’ plane. It turned out the attempt was made to deprive Russia as a sovereign debtor of the opportunity to make payments. Having no possibility to service the foreign debt in the currency of the credit liability, Russia made the most proper decision, offering settlements in rubles. This was done in the first instance in interests of investors that purchased our bonds," Storchak said.