US Treasury pushes Russia towards default. What lies next?: An explainer

Russia has around $40 billion of international bonds outstanding, with just under $2 billion in external debt servicing left until year-end

Russia edged closer to a historic debt default on Wednesday after the United States decided against extending a key license that had allowed Moscow to keep paying bondholders despite the sanctions imposed on it for attacking Ukraine.

The license expired at 12:01 am ET (0401 GMT) on Wednesday, setting Russia on course for its first major default on sovereign international bonds in over a century.

Here are some questions and answers on what might happen next:

What has changed?
 

A license issued on March 2 by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) had allowed for transactions between U.S.

entities