Kyiv, December 17 (Navigator, Vladimir Mikhailov) – Russia with a high degree of probability in January-February 2015 will demand that Ukraine repay a debt of $3 billion, which will be the final blow to the Ukrainian economy.
Economist Oleg Ustenko, executive director of the International Blazer Foundation, stated this at a press conference in Kyiv.
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He recalled that last year Russia purchased Ukrainian debt bonds. Until recently, Moscow promised that it would not present them for payment, but now, most likely, the Kremlin’s position will change.
“An additional risk hangs over Ukraine in the form of those 3 billion dollars that we will have to return according to the plan in December 2015 in Russia. You remember that one of the points of the agreement under which Russia bought bonds of our debt at the end of last year was the right of Russia to demand payment of the debt if the ratio of Ukraine's external public debt to its GDP exceeds 60%.
We formally exceeded this mark a few weeks ago, and official statistics will be published at the end of January. We believe that real risks arise due to the fact that $3 billion will have to be returned in the near future - late January-February 2015, despite the Kremlin's statements that Ukraine will continue to use this money. This will be an additional destabilizing factor for the Ukrainian economy,” says the expert.
The leadership of the Russian Federation, among other things, will be pushed to such a decision by the unfavorable economic situation in the country, the expert believes.