Russia defaulted on its foreign debt for the first time in more than a century, after failing to meet a deadline set for Sunday, according to a report.

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And the Kremlin, who was turning out to be a vice president, was a vice president.

The Russian Finance Minister defined the situation as "a farce."
The last time Russia defaulted on its foreign debt was in 1918, during the Bolshevik Revolution when then-communist leader Vladimir Lenin refused to pay the debts of the Russian Empire.

The last time Russia defaulted on debt of any kind was in 1998, when the country was rocked by the ruble crisis during the chaotic end of Boris Yeltsin's regime.

At the time, Moscow failed to continue to make its domestic bond payments, but was able to pay off its foreign debt.

Russia appeared headed for an inevitable default, ever since the European Union and the United States imposed sanctions on it in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine.

This restricted Moscow's access to international banking networks, which regulate payments from Russia to investors around the world.

The Russian government said it wanted all of its payments to be made on time, and so far it has been successful.

Russia had to pay the $100 million interest on May 27.

Russia says the money was sent to Euroclear, a bank that then distributes the payments to investors.

But those payments remained stuck there, according to Bloomberg, and were not received by creditors.

The funds did not arrive within 30 days of the due date, i.e. Sunday evening, so this is considered a default.

Euroclear did not say whether it had prevented the money from being paid, but said it was complying with all penalties.

A default seemed inevitable with the US Treasury's decision not to renew the special exemption in the sanctions rules, which allows investors to receive interest payments from Russia, which expired on May 25.

Now the Kremlin appears to have accepted this inevitability as well, decreeing on June 23 that all future debt payments will be made in rubles through a Russian bank, even if contracts stipulate payment in dollars or other international currencies.

Finance Minister Anton Siluanov admitted that foreign investors "will not be able to receive" the payments, RIA Novosti news agency reported.