Ukraine, Russia may meet in Germany on USD 3 bln debt, Siluanov says

Russian Finance Minister Anton Sluanov won’t attend a regular meeting of the IMF and World Bank Group in Washington on Oct. 6-9, where it was planned that he would meet with Ukraine’s Finance Minister Oleksandr Danyliuk, the Interfax news agency reported on Sept. 28. Consequently, the meeting to discuss a possible resolution of a dispute on a USD 3 bln debt that Russia claims from Ukraine will be postponed. “We hope to reschedule the meeting for a later date … and hold it on the territory of the mediator, namely Germany,” Siluanov said.

Ukrainian Finance Ministry officially commented to Interfax-Ukraine that the ministry is ready to enter negotiations on resolving the debt dispute in order to meet Ukraine’s obligations to the IMF to behave in good faith with the Russian lender. At the same time, MinFin stressed that “Ukraine is confident in its legal position and is focusing on preparing for a court hearing scheduled for January 2017.” The possible negotiations do not harm Ukraine’s legal position, MinFin said, as cited by Interfax-Ukraine.

Recall, Ukraine introduced a moratorium on the repayment of a USD 3 bln Eurobond owned by the Russian state fund (the so-called Yanukovych debt), which was due in December 2015. This was a result of the refusal of the bondholder to participate in the restructuring of Ukrainian sovereign Eurobonds in October-November. An expedited review of Russia’s claim to Ukraine is scheduled to take place in the High Court of London on Jan. 17 to Jan. 20.

Alexander Paraschiy: For us it’s clear that no resolution of the debt dispute can be made at any meeting of ministers, so we should wait until January’s court hearing for a result. We continue to believe Ukraine will be able to avoid repaying this loan.