If the future is characterized by a new Cold War, where the West blockades Russia from financing, why would the Russian government care about defaulting on their debts?
Putin just signed a new law that creates a duplicate cashless payment system to Visa and MasterCard, which have been processing 90% of cashless payments in Russia. They're developing their own credit companies, in response to recent actions by American companies.
All of our actions are forcing Russia to become more self-reliant. In the long run, that might be a good thing for Russia.
Which is fine by me as a secure Russia is a less belligerent one and BTW, I foresee no return to the Cold War. Default would make it impossible for Russia to borrow money and cashless system merely replaces currency in domestic transactions. Their economy still requires bank credits and Russia's soft currency (rubles) is increasingly worthless on the international market. Russia needs to sell oil to gain hard currency like the dollar which they need to function internationally. It's just not practical for them to withdraw from the world.
Last edited: