MOSCOW -- Russian President Vladimir Putinon Wednesday demanded the timely repayment of all debts owed to it by Ukraine while criticized latter's move to impose moratorium on state debt repayment.
The Ukrainian parliament on Tuesday approved a law which gives the government the right to miss Kiev's payments to international private lenders as it has been negotiating terms for restructuring of foreign debt.
President Putin, while speaking at a government meeting, said the Ukraine's adoption of the new law shows "a poor level of professional responsibility" and this is "a de facto announcement of a looming default."
Russian Financial Minister Anton Siluanov also said earlier in the day that Russia would file a lawsuit against Ukraine to the international court if necessary.
Russia holds 3 billion U.S. dollars Ukrainian Eurobond whose full repayment is due by the end of the year. Moscow, whose relations with Kiev have been deteriorated by a year-long conflict in eastern Ukraine, has declined to join the debt restructuring talks, according to reports.
Reports also say that Ukraine, with its economy adversely affected by factors such as recession and the conflict in the east, hopes to secure a new tranche of a 17.5 billion U.S. dollars bailout program with the International Monetary Fund to shore up its foreign currency reserves. It is also holding talks to restructure sovereign and state-guaranteed debt to fill in a 15 billion U.S. dollars funding gap, but the negotiations have not gone well as expected.
