MOSCOW, June 28. /TASS/. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov found it difficult to evaluate Moody's statements about Russia's alleged default, recalling that the agency had refused to rate the Russian Federation.

"As for Moody's, it has recently refused to rate Russia, if we understand it correctly. Does this [the statement about the alleged default of the Russian Federation] mean that Moody's has resumed the rating process? Perhaps, the agency should explain it itself," the Kremlin spokesman told reporters.

When asked if Russia is going to file lawsuits against Westerns financial institutions whose actions led to the situation when the holders of Russian Eurobonds did not receive payments on two coupons during the grace period Peskov said that "this issue requires a deep analysis by our lawyers and financial agencies, which are working on it."

Earlier, Moody’s reported that on June 27, holders of Russia's sovereign debt had not received coupon payments on two Eurobonds worth $100 million by the time the 30-calendar-day grace period expired, which is considered an event of default under the agency’s definition.

Moody's also stated that it was going to regard payments as part of a new procedure for servicing external debt in rubles as a default.

Servicing external debt

In late May, the US Treasury terminated a license allowing Russia to make payments to service its foreign debt.

Last week, in order to pay off the debt, Moscow fulfilled its Eurobond obligations in rubles for the first time using a new mechanism that allows such payments to be made.

As Finance Minister Anton Siluanov emphasized earlier, this does not mean a ‘default’ on the external debt: creditors have no reason to believe that Moscow is fulfilling its obligations improperly, since Russia, under force majeure conditions, is doing everything so that creditors receive their funds.

Siluanov said that the United States and the European Union are creating artificial barriers to servicing Russia's foreign debt in order to "put the 'default' label on it."

Eurobonds issued by Russia after 2018 allow, under certain conditions, redemption in rubles. However, Eurobonds issued prior to 2018 either do not contain this provision or only allow redemption in currencies such as the dollar, euro, pound sterling or Swiss franc.