“We don’t want Ukraine’s default or the complication of the already poor state of the Ukrainian economy. On the contrary we need a healthy partner. But debts must be paid off – both the state debts and the business debts, including the bank debts. That is why decisions on this would have to be made in the nearest future,” Medvedev said at the Gaidar Economic Forum in Moscow.
In December 2013, Russia decided to issue Kiev a loan of $15 billion and bought Ukraine’s first Eurobonds worth $3 billion. After the February 2014 coup in Ukraine, Moscow decided not to allocate another $12 billion.
On Saturday, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said Ukraine had breached the conditions on a $3 billion Russian loan once Kiev’s state debt topped 60 percent of the country’s gross domestic product. Moscow now has every right to demand the immediate repayment of the loan, but that no such decision has been made.
