Russia defaults on its foreign-currency sovereign debt, due to Western sanctions cutting off Russia's payment channels to international creditors.
On Sunday, the grace period for nearly $100 million in snared interest payments that were due on May 27 expired.
Missing this deadline will be viewed as a default event.
Russia claim it has the funds to pay its obligations, but has been forced into non-payment due to Western sanctions.
Last week, the country declared it would begin paying its $40 billion in outstanding sovereign debt in rubles.
However, none of the underlying bonds have terms that allow for payment in the local currency.
So far, it’s unclear if investors will agree to this change and whether existing sanctions would permit this.
In 1998, President Boris Yeltsin's government defaulted on $40 billion of its domestic debt during Russia's financial crisis and ruble collapse.
In 1918, Russia defaulted on its obligations to its foreign creditors, when the Bolsheviks renounced the country's huge Czarist-era financial burden.
