Russia is on the verge of a historic debt-related financial bankruptcy since 1998, as Sunday’s deadline to make the $ 100 million payment looks set to expire.

Although it is said that there is money to do so, this is impossible because sanctions have led to the non-acceptance of payments by international creditors.

The Kremlin has inevitably embarked on a path to bankruptcy since economic sanctions were first imposed by the United States and the European Union, following Russian military aggression in Ukraine.

These sanctions restricted the country’s access to the international banking network, which processes payments from Russia to investors around the world. About $ 40 billion of debt is held outside of Russia.

The $ 100 million interest payment was due on May 27th. Russia says it sent the money to Euroclear, but the payment remained undistributed to creditors.

Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov has acknowledged that foreign investors “could not receive payments”.

“Correspondent banks, settlement and clearing systems, depositors – are barred from conducting any operations in connection with Russia. “The second is that foreign investors are explicitly prohibited from receiving payments from us,” Siluanov said.

Credit rating agencies would normally act as the official indicator that this is happening, but they are barred from covering Russia after sanctions are imposed. Alternatively, the creditors themselves may declare a default and demand that Russia immediately repay the entire amount of the debt.

Failing countries usually find it impossible to borrow more money, but Russia is already barred from doing so in Western markets because of sanctions.