US Should Have Let Russia Continue To Pay Foreign Debt: Q&A

The US Treasury was wrong to prevent Russia from continuing to pay its foreign currency debt and has now made life harder for bondholders, according to Lee Buchheit and Elena Daly, sovereign debt lawyers with expertise on Russia.

The US had left open a loophole in its sanctions agreement, that allowed Russia to keep paying debt in dollars, but this week it let that waiver expire, bringing Russia closer to potential default. Buccheit and Daly, who were part of the legal team that advised the Russian Federation on its debt restructuring in the late 1990s, talked to Irene Garcia …