The United States suspended the payment of more than $600 million in Russian-dollar bonds from reserves held at US correspondent banks. It is reported by Reuters.

Previously, Russia could pay off its national debt using funds in its accounts at American financial institutions, including JPMorgan. But on April 4, the US Treasury decided to rule out this possibility as part of tightening sanctions.

On that day, the Russian Federation was supposed to pay $552.4 million and $84 million in bonds. If that doesn’t happen, the country technically has a 30-day grace period before it defaults.

The Ministry of Finance urged the Russian government to pay in foreign currency from domestic reserves or accept default.

The Russian side has not yet commented on the decision of the US authorities and did not report whether the payment of the public debt was made on time. The first payment of the public debt after the assets freeze of the Russian Federation was made on 17 March.

Recall that in March the IMF predicted that Russia would imminently default on the backdrop of blocking half of the country’s foreign exchange reserves.

According to the Russian Ministry of Finance, the sanctions deprived the country of access to $300 billion.