Russian news agencies reported in early June that Novgorod Oblast in central Russia had become the country’s first region to default on its financial obligations. An official from the Novgorod financial department told RBK news agency that the region failed to make a payment of $33 million to the Russian state bank VTB (Rbc.ru, June 9). VTB Group is the second largest financial institution in the country and the Russian state is its primary stockholder (Vtb.ru, accessed June 22).
Russian authorities, however, appeared reluctant to admit Novgorod’s financial default. Meanwhile, Standard & Poor’s credit rating agency said that Russia’s federal …read more
Source: The Jamestown Foundation